From healthy soils, to good local jobs, we bet you didn’t know that compost can have such an impact! So think twice before you throw away your compostable food scraps… because one person’s trash is another’s black gold. Please help us spread the word!

You can view the individual infographic sections here, but below is the full infographic and a variety of formats are available for download below.

All pages of the infographic are available for download individually or together:

Compost Infographic_FULL

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FULL, WEB-OPTIMIZED GRAPHIC

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ALL FIVE 18×24 INDIVIDUAL POSTERS TOGETHER

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ALL FIVE 13×19 INDIVIDUAL POSTERS TOGETHER

We have also, per partnership with local allies, translated the overall infographic into Arabic, Polish and Latvian. If you’re interested in having translating it into your language, please email [email protected].

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If you’re publishing on your website, or in one of your publications, please include this sentence:

“The following comes from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (www.ilsr.org), a national nonprofit organization working to strengthen local economies, and redirect waste into local recycling, composting, and reuse industries. It is reprinted here with permission.”

Please, make sure to let people know they should link to: https://ilsr.org/compost-impacts/ to download the original content for their own publications. They also should include the above attribution language.

Help us continue to produce content like this. Please consider making a donation today:

Want more resources? See below for a full list of reports the help you dig even deeper.

Resources/More Information:

Compost: Impacts More Than You Think

Brenda Platt, Nora Goldstein, Craig Coker, and Sally Brown, The State of Composting in the U.S.: What, Why, Where, & How, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), June 2015.

US EPA, Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Facts and Figures 2013, June 2015, pp. 12, 46.

Brenda Platt, Eric Lombardi, and David Ciplet, Stop Trashing the Climate, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), 2008.

Brenda Platt, Bobby Bell, and Cameron Harsh, Pay Dirt: Composting in Maryland to Reduce Waste, Create Jobs & Protect the Bay, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), May 2013.

Mike Ewall, Trash Incineration Factsheet, Energy Justice Network web page, https://www.energyjustice.net, accessed April 2016.

Composting Enhances Soil and Protects Watersheds

Bobby Bell and Brenda Platt, Building Healthy Soils with Compost to Protect Watersheds, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), June 2014.

Brenda Platt, Nora Goldstein, Craig Coker, and Sally Brown, The State of Composting in the U.S.: What, Why, Where, & How, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), June 2015.

“Why Build Healthy Soil?” Washington Organic Recycling Council (WORC) Soils for Salmon Project, accessed April 2016.

United States Composting Council (USCC), “Specify and Use COMPOST for LEED & Sustainable Sites Projects: A Natural Connection”

“Soil Health Key Points,” Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA, February 2013.

“Increasing Soil Organic Matter with Compost,” Compost: The Sustainable Solution, US Composting Council, July 2014.

“Strive for 5%,” US Composting Council’s campaign to promote 5% organic matter in soils, US Composting Council.

Composting Protects the Climate

Gunnar Myhre, Drew Shindell, et. al, Anthropogenic & Natural Radiative Forcing, Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to Fifth Assessment Report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, 2013, p. 714.

“Can Land Management Enhance Soil Carbon Sequestration?” Marin Carbon Project web site, accessed April 2016.

Rebecca Ryals and Whendee L. Silver, “Effects of organic matter amendments on net primary productivity and greenhouse gas emissions in annual grasslands,” Ecological Applications (Ecological Society of America), 1 January 2013, 23:46-59. doi:10.1890/12-0620.1

Brenda Platt, Nora Goldstein, Craig Coker, and Sally Brown, The State of Composting in the U.S.: What, Why, Where, & How, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), June 2015.

Brenda Platt, Eric Lombardi, and David Ciplet, Stop Trashing the Climate, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), 2008.

Composting Creates Jobs

Brenda Platt, Bobby Bell, and Cameron Harsh, Pay Dirt: Composting in Maryland to Reduce Waste, Create Jobs & Protect the Bay, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), May 2013.

Brenda Platt, Nora Goldstein, Craig Coker, and Sally Brown, The State of Composting in the U.S.: What, Why, Where, & How, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), June 2015.

Brenda Platt and Neil Seldman, Wasting and Recycling in the United States 2000, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), 2000.