5 – 11 May 2024
International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW) is the largest and most comprehensive education initiative of the compost industry. It is celebrated during the first full week of May. Started in Canada in 1995, ICAW has continued to grow as more people, businesses, municipalities, schools and organizations are recognizing the importance of composting and the long-term benefits from organics recycling.
The 2024 International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW) theme is truly a collaborative and international effort. Again this year, the Compost Research and Education Foundation has teamed up with the International Compost Alliance (ICA), which includes compost associations from around the world, to select: COMPOST… Nature’s Climate Champion!
The theme was chosen by participating international partners incorporating the collective focus on one of the initiatives of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which is “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.”
The 2024 theme best reflects the UN goal by highlighting the role compost plays in fighting climate change. Those roles include:
- Decreasing methane: Methane, a greenhouse gas twenty-five times as powerful as carbon dioxide, can be significantly reduced through the recycling of organics instead of their being landfilled.
- Helping with climate change mitigation: Compost offers a significant answer to climate change mitigation. Compost’s return to the soil serves as a “carbon bank,” helping to store carbon thereby removing it from the atmosphere.
- Reducing fertilizer inputs, reducing the pollution created to manufacture those inputs.
- Increasing resilience: Compost helps to increase resilience to the effects of climate change such as drought and extreme weather.
The goal of the ICAW program is to raise the awareness of the public regarding the benefits of using compost to improve or maintain high quality soil, to grow healthy plants, reduce the use of fertilizer and pesticides, improve water quality and protect the environment. The program includes a poster contest, programs at schools and activities and events promoted through governments, public municipalities and local businesses nationwide.
Throughout the week of ICAW, community and business events are held to encourage and celebrate composting. All types of composting – from backyard to large-scale are promoted. Events include tours of compost facilities, school gardening programs, compost workshops, lectures by a well-known gardening expert, compost give-away days, to name just a few.
For more information about ICAW please visit: www.compostfoundation.org/icaw
Thank you to our 2024 Conference Supporters
AORA would like to acknowledge our National Sponsors who play an active role in realising our vision:
