The Composting Association of Vermont is joining environmental and recycling businesses, organizations, community groups and individuals around the U.S. to celebrate the Annual International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW) from May 3 - 9.
Traditionally, ICAW is promoted by holding group activities and events but due to Covid-19, all events are being held virtually. The goal of the program is still the same - building awareness on the benefits of compost use and organics recycling.
Compost is important for:
Improving or maintaining soil quality,
Growing healthy plants,
Reducing the use of fertilizer and pesticides,
Improving water quality, and
Protecting the environment.
Organics recycling plays a key role in keeping valuable materials out of landfills. The ICAW theme for 2020 is Soil Loves Compost. A poster contest was held in the fall, open to children, youth and adults from throughout the world. Artists were asked to create a design based on the theme. This year’s winner is Magnus Kallas from London. His design was chosen from over 700 submissions.
Check out these great ICAW posters by UVM students taking Composting Ecology & Management (PSS 154), taught by Dr. Deb Neher
Click on an image and hover to read about the student’s inspiration for their posters
ICAW 2020 Program
Tuesday May 5th, at 1pm EDT
Backyard Composting Basics with Cassandra Hemenway, Outreach Manager at the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District, and Theron Lay-Sleeper, CVSWMD outreach coordinator.
Watch the webinar recording now
Wednesday May 6th, at 10am EDT (4:00pm CEST)
Food Waste and the Circular Economy – Experience from Denmark with Bob Spencer (Windham Solid Waste Management District), Claus Mortensen (Agro Business Park), Dr. Rasmus Eisted (Danish Environmental Protection Agency), Lars Ravn Nielsen (Gemidan Ecogi A/S), and Chris Voell (Embassy of Denmark in Washington DC).
Watch the webinar recording now
Wednesday May 6th, at 1pm EDT
Small Scale Composting: Helping People and Communities Make Positive Change in the Age of Covid-19 With Athena Lee Bradley (Windham Solid Waste Management District) and Natasha Duarte (Composting Association of Vermont).
Watch the webinar recording now
Thursday May 7th, at 10am EDT
How to grow your own food at home: a primer from raised beds to lawn conversion Join Mark Krawczyk to learn how to convert lawn to garden, nourish existing garden beds, establish raised beds, and plant in containers. There will be time for plenty of Q&A and we'll link to seed selection, gardening, and other resources.
Watch the webinar recording now
Friday May 8th, at Noon EDT
Compost as a Climate Solution Join us for a discussion on how compost improves soil health, increases rainfall infiltration, boosts drought resilience, and sequesters carbon with Karl Thidemann, Co-founder and Co-director of Soil4Climate.
Watch the webinar recording now
Friday May 8th, at 3pm EDT
Composting for Your Garden in the Time of COVID-19. Composting our food and garden wastes gives fertility back to the land. Waste is the last part of the food system. Composting food wastes makes our food system cyclical. Decomposition is the essential transformation of once living materials into fertilizer used to grow again. The end product of compost is a bio-inoculant and fertilizer that improves our garden soil, keeps valuable carbon and nutrients out of the landfill, and saves us money. But what are some innovative ways for gardeners to make compost? What does compost do for plants and our soils? And why is it important to close the food cycle loop? These are some of the questions we hope to answer with panelists Wendy Sue Harper, Grace Gershuny, and Natasha Duarte.
This webinar is part of Prescott College’s Food Systems Friday Webinar Series.
