National awareness days come thick and fast and many of them slip by without us noticing – but this entire week (6-12 May) is dedicated to celebrating one thing in particular: compost. International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW), now in its 24th year, is a comprehensive educational initiative by the worldwide compost industry to raise awareness of the benefits of organics recycling.

Originating in Canada in 1995, ICAW was created by the US Composting Council to educate the public about the importance of quality compost for soil, plant and water health, as well as how using compost can divert waste from landfill and reduce the need for environmentally-damaging pesticides.

Jeremy Jacobs, Technical Director at the Renewable Energy Association, expressed his support for the initiative, saying: "There is a great deal of noise in the press regarding the circular economy and resource efficiency, and there is no better demonstration of this in practice than the wonderful world of composting! ICAW promotes the significant benefits of compost, both societal in respect to removing biodegradable wastes from landfill where it produces harmful methane emissions, through to the benefits of using compost as a growing media for horticulture and soil amendments in the farming arena.

"Quality product is at the heart of the debate and it is important that everyone in the supply chain play their part in ensuring that that contamination is minimised. Householders need to ensure that they only include the correct material in their green waste bin ( or green and Food waste where applicable) and exclude plastics unless they are compostable. Local Authorities also have a role to play in educating the public and policing the collection of the bins where they have control of this activity and lastly, the composter should remove non target material ensuring that the compost is plastic free."

Under this year's theme, 'Compost! Building a Better Future', a range of events are being held worldwide, from a small-scale home composting workshops to tours of industrial-scale composting facilities.

In Northern Ireland, which recently announced increased food waste collections had boosted the nation’s recycling rate for the last three months of 2017 by five points to 47.1 per cent, Derry City and Strabane District Council (DCSDC) is giving away free compost as part of ICAW – residents can pick up a bag of compost from a local recycling centre made from food and garden waste collected in the region’s kerbside recycling scheme.

Maoliosa McHugh, Mayor of DCSDC, said local residents should be commended for embracing the brown food waste caddy system, which was introduced in Derry in 2015 and has seen almost 24,000 tonnes of organic waste collected since then. “It costs twice as much to send food to landfill as it does to recycle it, so the switch from black to brown is saving ratepayers’ money as well as helpig our environment,” McHugh commented. “I urge local people to avail of this fantastic free compost scheme.”

Waste Services Manager Nicola McCool agreed, adding: “This initiative is the perfect example of our local circular economy in action and underlines the very real benefits to people of disposing of food waste in their brown bin.”

Taking this idea to a commercial next step is re3, a partnership between Bracknell Forest, Wokingham and Reading District Councils and waste management company FCC Environment. Re3 has launched its own branded compost made from the garden waste collected in the partner councils’ kerbside schemes or at household waste recycling centres. Cllr Dorothy Hayes. Bracknell Forest’s Executive Member for the Environment, commented: “The process of composting is one of the best examples of closed loop recycling and it’s great to see the garden waste from the re3 area is going full circle and back into residents’ gardens as a quality compost.”

Organic growing charity Garden Organic is also using ICAW to draw attention to the potential benefits of home composting: according to the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), use of a home compost bin can divert around 150 kilogrammes of waste from landfill each year. Garden Organic is offering training sessions across the UK from the charity’s own Master Composters, volunteers who are trained in sustainable waste management practices.

Commenting on the significance of ICAW, Frank Franciosi, Executive Director of the Composting Council‘s Research & Education Foundation, said: “Now more than ever it is extremely important to renew and regenerate our global soils. Composting and compost use can aid in fighting global climate change.”

More information about ICAW 2018 can be found on the Composting Council’s website.