BACK TO NATURE - Sustainable communities begin with compost!

From tackling climate change to increasing food security, water quality and strengthening biodiversity, one simple, thoughtful act delivers big, positive impacts – compost!

May 4–10, 2025 marks this year’s International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW) — a global celebration of compost and its power to build stronger, healthier, and more sustainable communities.

“Composting organic residuals and creating compost is proven to tackle climate change, while also helping grow nutrient-dense food and support healthy soils,” said John

McKew at the Australian Organics Recycling Association (AORA). 

Add to this, it can also bring communities together, support local food systems and help achieve sustainability goals.

This year’s theme, “Sustainable Communities Begin with Compost!” drives home a powerful truth that every banana peel, coffee ground and lawn clipping we compost instead of throwing them in the rubbish delivers great environmental gains by:

1. Reducing Methane Emissions: Organic waste in landfills generates methane, a greenhouse gas with 86 times the global warming potential of CO₂ over 20 years. Diverting organic waste to composting or anaerobic digestion can drastically cut these emissions.

2. Increasing Soil Health: Compost produced from organic recycling improves soil structure, enriches soil with nutrients, enhances water retention, minimizes soil erosion and strengthens biodiversity.

3. Fighting Climate Change: Compost’s return to the soil serves as a “carbon bank,” helping to store carbon thereby removing it from the atmosphere and mitigating climate change.

Globally, composting is the heart of the circular economy and currently:

- Recycles over 85 million tonnes of bio-waste every year.

- Reduces greenhouse gas emissions by more than 9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents a year through storing carbon in soil and offsetting fertilizer use (an equivalent to driving an average petrol/gas-powered car for 36 billion kilometres (23 billion miles); almost 95 thousand times the distance between the earth and the moon!

- Naturally recycles over 1 million tonnes of plant macro nutrients, supporting improved productivity and farm profitability.

And yet, while all this good is well known, landfilling and incineration continue as the main ways to manage unavoidable organic residuals, wasting enormous potential to address global and local sustainability goals and stopping climate change.

Compost is more than waste management—it's community transformation," remarked John McKew.

“When we compost, we invest in more than soil - we invest in cleaner air, stronger communities, and a healthier planet for future generations. Through International

Compost Awareness Week, compost advocates around the world are united in highlighting the immense potential of composting and compost for building sustainable communities."

It just feels good to know you’re making a difference—one banana peel at a time.