Celebrate International Compost Awareness Week and the International Year of Soils with St. Louis Composting!
St. Louis Composting invites you to join in celebrating International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW), May 3-9, 2015. This year’s theme is “Be Loyal to Your Soil- Compost!” This fits in perfectly since 2015 is also the International Year of the Soils.
“Healthy soil is the foundation that ensures working farms and ranches become more productive, resilient to climate change and better prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century.” US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stated this past January. However, healthy soil is not just important to the farmers and ranchers. Soil is a limited and nonrenewable natural resource and is the foundation of our food supply system. Soil is the number one building block for growing food crops and biofuels components as well as animal feeds and natural fibers. Soils are a location of nutrient cycling and a range of ecosystem functions as well as being the starting point for a source of clean water.
With an ever increasing global population, the available area of fertile and healthy soils covering the Earth’s surface is rapidly dwindling. Luckily, countries across the globe are realizing how important healthy soils really are. That is why the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization has declared 2015 the International Year of Soils.
Planned activities span the globe with celebrations scheduled across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia. Composting advocates will encourage everyone, everywhere to compost and educate themselves about the importanance of healthy soils. Come join St. Louis Composting and learn how to improve your soil quality with compost!
“Be Loyal to Your Soil” for many, can mean planting a backyard vegetable garden; the ultimate way to go green. Fresh produce comes direct from the soil to your table. It can also mean not spraying your soil with harmful chemicals. However, as any seasoned gardener will attest, the best strategy for boosting yields is to build a better soil by conditioning with compost. Compost delivers four major benefits to the garden, all of which help the environment:
- Compost improves plant/turf quality. Compost reduces spring transplant shock and over the long term, helps decrease plant stress, and its response to drought, disease and insects. Because of the intense heat generated in compost piles, compost contains no weeds, insects or insect eggs/larvae. Compost can also help reduce salt damage and provides nutritional balance.
- The benefits of compost are long-lasting. Rain and watering cause chemical fertilizers to leach out of soil stripping it of its nutritional properties. Conversely, compost binds with the soil and releases its nutrients over a longer period.
- Compost enhances soil structure. Compost helps reduce the compaction of heavy soil, enhances sandy soil and increases soil fertility while rebuilding worn-out soil. Over time, compost makes any type of soil easier to work with.
- Finally, compost can hold six times its weight in water, which helps reduce the need for irrigation during periods of drought.
But perhaps it is more important to remember that when planting using St. Louis Composting’s all-natural, United States Composting Council STA-certified compost, your garden has become part of a 100% efficient recycling cycle.
ICAW focuses on building awareness of composting and its environmental benefits. Year after year, innovative programs help improve community sustainability and promote the use of compost. Join us in celebrating International Compost Awareness Week and get hands-on with St. Louis Composting with a heaping helping of compost!
To celebrate, St. Louis Composting will host events at three of our composting facilities on May 5, 6 and 9. Enjoy a complimentary lunch with our experts and talk compost.
May 5
Fort Bellefontaine facility inFlorissant, Mo.
(13060 County Park Road) – 11a.m.
May 6
Belleville, Ill. facility
(5841 Mine Haul Road) – 11a.m.
May 9
Pacific, Mo. facility
(18900 Franklin Road) – 11a.m.
On Saturday, May 9, SLC will host a ZERO waste lunch from 11 – 12:30p.m. Our experts will educate you about compost, soil and the benefits of both together. We will also be talking about how to begin backyard composting and enrich your backyard vegetable gardens! No registration is required; just show up ready to COMPOST!
Home composting equipment and bins will be available for purchase at each event. Kitchen composters will also be raffled throughout the week.
If you cannot attend St. Louis Composting’s exciting ICAW events, be sure to celebrate ICAW at home! Start your own compost pile or incorporate our Black Gold Compost into your lawn, landscaping and gardens and see its benefits for yourself!
For more information about the benefits of compost and composting at home, please visit our website at www.stlcompost.com or contact Sara Ryan at 314-482-7740.