Make Every Day Earth Day Through Composting
ILSR Shares Resources to Build Soil Health and Cut Carbon Emissions
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The first Earth Day in 1970 sparked not only the beginning of the environmental movement, but also the birth of the modern recycling movement. Today, recycling of paper, bottles, and cans is the norm, but food waste recovery remains paltry. Less than 5% of food thrown away is recovered. According to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), almost half of typical garbage could be converted into compost (Source: ILSR’s Infographic).
Compost is recognized for its ability to enhance soil fertility, soil water holding capacity, and soil carbon storage. To celebrate Earth Day 2017, ILSR has released a series of posters illustrating these benefits, along with other resources to spur community scale composting projects.
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The full-length Infographic: Compost Impacts More Than You Think details the myriad benefits composting can have in a community, including job creation; it is broken into sections and posters for easy-sharing here.
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ILSR-produced Hierarchy to Reduce Food Waste and Grow Community highlights the importance of reducing wasted food, rescuing edible food, and home composting, followed by community scale composting before large-scale centralized composting.
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Finally, this YouTube video details the value of ILSR’s Neighborhood Soil Rebuilders Training Program for training community leaders in composting programs in their city.
“Communities investing in local composting projects will reap healthier soils, food, and people,” says Brenda Platt, the director of ILSR’s Composting for Community Project. “Composting creates four times more jobs than landfilling or burning while cutting greenhouse gas emissions. It’s time to feed the soil and local economy, not the landfill.”
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About ILSR: The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) is a national public interest organization. Its Composting for Community Project is helping communities see the economic benefits of community composting and rethinking the waste system. Brenda Platt is a national expert on the policies and economics surrounding community composting and the technical implementation of such programs. Contact Nick Stumo-Langer to set up an interview at 612-844-1330 or at stumolanger@ilsr-migration.test.
