Composting for a healthy earth

International Composting Awareness Week (ICAW) is on again this year from the 4 -10 May 2008 with the theme of telling the story of compost - how compost is made, where compost is applied, and compost's contribution to environmental sustainability.

ICAW is a project of Compost Australia, the industry association for compost processing. The Department of Environment and Climate Change NSW (DECC) is proud to join with industry and other government sponsors to support ICAW, which provides an excellent opportunity to showcase the composting efforts of the NSW community and to raise awareness about the environmental benefits of composting.

Over the years, ICAW has auspiced a range of events, including compost applications in community gardens, pumpkin growing contests, poster contests, compost tea parties, compost facility visits and displays in community and council offices. Last year Compost NSW held a highly successful Compost Ball which raised money for a composting facility in Aceh, Indonesia which had been destroyed by the 2006 south-east Asian tsunami.

Composting is a biological process which changes organic material into products which create healthy soils - the foundation of healthy ecosystems and productive landscapes. Even city dwellers can contribute to the making of healthy landscapes by composting at home, by putting out clean, sorted organic material for collection by councils, or by taking sorted organic material to council collection depots.

To get involved or if you have any suggestions for ways to tell the story of compost please contact Kevin Morgan by email kevin@corebusinessnet.com or phone (02) 9922 1951.

For more information about composting visit livingthing.net.au