{"id":14820,"date":"2014-07-14T04:39:43","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T08:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ilsr.org\/articles\/composting-key-to-soil-health-and-climate-protection-according-to-two-new-reports\/"},"modified":"2024-05-01T17:28:44","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T17:28:44","slug":"composting-key-soil-health-climate-protection-reports","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/ilsr.org\/es\/article\/composting-for-community\/composting-key-soil-health-climate-protection-reports","title":{"rendered":"Composting Key to Soil Health and Climate Protection, According to Two New Reports"},"template":"","class_list":["post-14820","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","article_type-press-release","initiatives-composting-for-community","authors-rebecca-toews"],"acf":{"details":{"featured_image":8303,"background_color":"","article_type":[9],"initiative":15,"display_event_fields":false,"display_case_study_fields":false,"start_date":null,"end_date":null,"start_time":null,"end_time":null,"time_zone":"America\/New_York","virtual_event":false,"location":"","locality":"","state":"","topics":false,"impact_areas":false,"abstract":"

Two new reports on composting could help communities reduce waste and build healthy soil to support local food production and protect against the impacts of extreme weather from droughts to heavy rainfall. These are among the findings of Growing Local Fertility: A Guide to Community Composting and The State of Composting in the U.S.: What, Why, Where & How released by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR).… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","authors_tax":[621]},"sidebar":{"title":"\u00cdndice"},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"

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Washington, DC \u2014 Composting reduces waste and builds healthy soil to support local food production and protect against the impacts of extreme weather, from droughts to heavy rainfall. That\u2019s the message of two new reports from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR):\u00a0State of Composting in the U.S.: What, Why, Where & How <\/i><\/b><\/a><\/i>y<\/i> Aumentar la fertilidad local: gu\u00eda para el compostaje comunitario<\/strong><\/a>.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE <\/b><\/p>\n

CONTACT: Rebecca Toews<\/p>\n

PHONE: 612-808-0689<\/p>\n

EMAIL: info@ilsr.org<\/a><\/p>\n

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Download both reports:<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/ilsr.org\/initiatives\/composting<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Compost is the dark, crumbly, earthy-smelling material produced by the managed decomposition of organic materials such as yard trimmings and food scraps. Compost is valued for its ability to enhance soil structure and quality. It adds organic matter to soil, improves plant growth and water retention, cuts chemical fertilizer use, and stems stormwater run-off and soil erosion. In the U.S., 99 million acres (28% of all cropland) are eroding above soil tolerance rates, meaning the long-term productivity of the soil to support plant growth cannot be maintained.<\/p>\n

\u201cApplying a meager half-inch of compost to the 99 million acres of severely eroded cropland would require about 3 billion tons of compost,\u201d says Brenda Platt, the lead author of both reports and director of ILSR\u2019s Composting Makes $en$e Project. \u201cThere is not enough compost to meet that need.\u00a0 No organic scrap should be wasted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compost also protects the climate:\u00a0 it sequesters carbon in soil and it reduces methane emissions from landfills by cutting the amount of biodegradable materials disposed. (Methane is a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 72 times more potent than CO2 in the short-term.) A growing body of evidence demonstrates the effectiveness of compost to store carbon in soil for a wide range of soil types and land uses.<\/p>\n

Yard trimmings composting programs are fairly well developed in the U.S. Of the 4,914 composting operations identified in the U.S. for State of Composting in the U.S., about 71% compost only yard trimmings (based on 44 states reporting). Food scrap recovery is slowly growing. More than 180 US cities and counties are now collecting residential food scraps for composting, up from only a handful a few years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is more demand for composting, especially from businesses and institutions that want to source separate food scraps and not throw them in the landfill,\u201d says Nora Goldstein, Editor of BioCycle, which conducted the state-by-state assessment of composting infrastructure and policies, \u201cWe not only need more infrastructure to compost these materials, we need more infrastructure to manufacture high quality compost that our soils \u2014 and climate \u2014 desperately need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a>State of Composting in the U.S.<\/a><\/i><\/b> is the first comprehensive review of composting basics, national and state statistics, job generation data, model programs, and policy opportunities.<\/p>\n

The report calls for a national soils strategy and for new rules and programs to grow composting, especially at the local community level: streamlined permitting for facilities, training programs, technical and financing assistance, strong recycling and composting goals, disposal bans, compost procurement policies, and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beauty of composting is that it can be small-scale, large-scale and everything in between,\u201d says Brenda Platt. \u201cWhy send resources out of the community when our neighborhoods need food and our soils are starved for organic matter?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sneak pe<\/i>ek inside<\/i> State of Composting in the U.S.: What, Why, Where & How<\/a>: <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n