Free Composting Event April 30, 2016

Get the Dirt on Compost—the Soil and Water Connection

Free Compost Awareness Event on April 30

Prince William, VA, March 9, 2016  – The Prince William County Solid Waste Division will host its fourth annual Compost Awareness Day Event for area residents on Saturday, April 30 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Prince William County Balls Ford Road Yard Waste Compost Facility, located at 13000 Balls Ford Road, Manassas, VA.  

Event highlights include:

·       Presentations by Lisa Ziegler, Gardener’s Workshop Farm, “From the Ground Up, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

·       Container gardening demo by Virginia Cooperative Extension Prince William Master Gardener, Amanda Caswell 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

·       Composting exhibits and environmental information

·       Compost and Compost bin sales

·       Plant sales-local schools

·       Door prizes

The event promotes backyard composting, which is recycling of leaves, grass and garden waste instead of sending this organic material to the County landfill for disposal. In addition to learning how to compost, residents can also find out how compost helps build healthy soil and enrich degraded soil in yards and gardens. As well as discover the positive effects it has on the environment. For example, it reduces or eliminates the need for fertilizers, which can be harmful to ground water and composting also saves landfill space. Yard waste is more than 13% of the waste stream in Prince William County, so composting is an important component of the County’s waste management strategy.

Event attendees can also save money.  Coupons good for $5 off the cost of a pick-up load of compost or mulch will be available. Compost bins will also be available for sale for $25/each (limit three per household while supplies last).

Prince William Compost Awareness Day supports International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW), the largest and most comprehensive education initiative of the compost industry.  ICAW supports composting efforts in the back yard or at large scale commercial composting facilities, like the County’s Balls Ford Road site. This year’s theme is Compost—the Soil and Water Connection. ICAW is held annually the first full week of May. The International Compost Awareness Committee chose this year’s theme to bring attention to the role of compost in healthy soil to address growing drought and food insecurity issues across the world.

The basic goals of Compost Awareness Week:

·       To increase the diversion of organics from the main waste stream through increasing

awareness of, and participation in organics diversion initiatives (centralized composting, home composting, community composting) and;

·       To increase awareness of, and advocate the proper use of, ‘soil-improving composts’

Visit www.pwcgov.org/trashandrecycling for more information.