International Compost Awareness Week

Erin Levine / 6 minute read

Happy International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW) 2022! Every year during the first full week in May we take time to celebrate nature’s fertilizer: Compost.

During this week, people around the world come together to raise awareness about the benefits of composting and using finished compost. Through events centered around education and outreach, large and small organizations focus on the importance of recycling organic materials in every way (backyard or industrial).

This year’s theme is: Recipe for Regeneration: Compost. Each year, the U.S. Composting Council sponsors a poster contest and this year's winner was Angelo Esquivel, an artist and graphic designer from Sacramento, CA.
According to Esquivel “The poster that I created expresses the use of regenerative practices in agriculture. it shows a farmer using composting into the crops where it creates a regenerative cycle and better crops.”

Watch our interview with Angelo about his views on composting and why he created the poster. See the interview here.

Regeneration goes beyond sustainable and implies an endless cycle of replenishment. When you think of adding compost to soil, which feeds the microbes and is teeming with life, you can think about soil health and overall quality improvement. Years of research has shown us that incorporating compost can enhance photosynthesis which can sequester carbon in the soil for decades.

Angelo Esquivel's winning poster for ICAW 2022

Regenerative farming includes practices that focus on long term impacts to a farm including a reduction or halt to tilling, using cover crops and you guessed it, adding compost! You can think of it like eating healthy all the time, as a lifestyle, unlike just taking vitamins and going on a diet or eating healthy for a short period of time.

Regenerative farming is synonymous with Carbon Farming and emphasizes:

Biodiversity
Improving the water cycle
Enhancing the entire ecosystem on a farm

This year, World Centric is celebrating ICAW by hearing from some of our customers who choose to use compostable foodservice ware in their businesses. In our interview with Rooted Cafe in Walnut Creek, Jennifer Gilmore explains why they opt for plant based compostables instead of petroleum based plastics.

And Sustainability Coordinator Samantha Lubow from UC Berkeley explains: “Although Cal Dining at UC Berkeley makes efforts to use reusables whenever possible, compostables have proven to be an important tool in helping us meet our waste reduction goals. Compostable products allow our dining services to meet the needs of our busy population by providing options for quick, convenient grab-and-go. Students on our campus are big proponents of our composting program and they support us in promoting waste sorting and the benefits of composting to their peers.”

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World Centric's mission to be of service to people and the planet starts with only producing 100% compostable foodservice ware. We hope you enjoy International Compost Awareness Week and help spread the word on the benefits of compost this week and all year long.