International Compost Awareness Week 2022

International Compost Awareness Week

Sunday 1^st May – Saturday 7^th May 2022

International Compost Awareness Week is held every year in early May. It’s aimed at raising awareness of the benefits of composting and encourages people to compost wherever they are in the world. This year the theme is ‘Recipe for Regeneration: Compost’.

This year’s theme highlights the overall regenerative agriculture movement and how compost and organics recycling fit into that process.

Regenerative agriculture is a system that focuses on improving soil health using agricultural practices with the idea that healthier soil will lead to healthier, more nutrient-rich crops and, ultimately, less carbon in the atmosphere through increased carbon sequestration.

From on-farm composting, large-scale commercial composting, right down to composting in our own gardens and allotments, this amazing resource has a valuable role to play in growing healthier food, supporting healthier soils, and helping us all to create a more sustainable future.

If you haven’t yet tried making your own compost, then this year we would really encourage you to give it a go.

Composting at home or at the allotment

Spring is an excellent time to start composting. Alternatively, it’s also a good time to sort and use your compost in readiness for the growing season.

Composting is an inexpensive, natural process that transforms your fruit and vegetable peelings, along with paper and cardboard from the home and mix of garden waste, to produce a nutrient rich product, which not only feeds your soil but also improves the structure of it. It is quite a straightforward process and the important part is putting in a good mix of materials to balance what we call the items high in nitrogen (the fresh, moist, greens) and the items high in carbon (the drier, fibrous, browns).

It’s also worth knowing that you don’t need a large garden to compost, you can still compost with only a patio and very little garden material. You can focus on putting in your fruit and vegetable peelings, tea leaves and coffee grounds and balance these materials with a mix of paper and cardboard, such as toilet roll and kitchen roll tubes; cardboard egg boxes and scrunched up paper from the home.

So if you are now considering it, about to start or still relatively new to the process, you can find out more on our home composting page or view our range of videos below. Our first video, ‘An introduction to composting’, talks you through the process, including the benefits both to you and the environment; what can go in; what to leave out and how it works. Watch the video below:

An introduction to composting

If you’ve already started composting and encountered some issues, then the next video on troubleshooting might just be the answer. It talks you through what to do if your compost is too wet or too dry; how to speed up the composting process; how to manage tricky weeds and wildlife in your compost. Watch the video below:

Compost – troubleshooting

Once the compost is made then the next video covers how to get the compost out of the bin. There’s a knack to this, see below:

How to empty the compost bin

And finally, ‘How to use your compost’, and there are plenty of suggestions to help you make the most of your compost to benefit your garden, patio containers or allotment.

Remember the theme for this year ‘Recipe for Regeneration: Compost’ . Adding compost will be putting the goodness back into the soil to help improve its health; especially relevant for any fruit and vegetable growers amongst you.

How to use your compost

If you find you regularly have food waste, including cooked foods or plate scrapings then check out our guidance on reducing food waste. We also have information on a range of food waste digesters which allow you to make the most of any wider food waste, rather than just your peelings. Take a look at our page on food waste digesters for further information.

You can find further information on composting here: http://www.lesswaste.org.uk/compost/

Events

This year, our Master Composters will be attending events during International Compost Week where they will be on hand to provide free expert advice, show you how to start a compost bin and any other questions you may have.

The following events are taking place:

And remember we have volunteers who can offer further guidance to support you in your composting endeavours. You can email us at: wasteprevention@leics.gov.uk or telephone us on: 0116 305 7005