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In our September/October edition, we unveiled how your food waste turns into compost. But, where does all that compost go?
Part of Senate Bill (SB) 1383, the state law mandating composting for all California residents and business, requires that cities procure the recovered organic waste, such as compost and mulch, for residents.
The City of Ventura provides free compost and mulch to all City residents at Cornucopia Community Garden, every day of the week from sunrise to sundown.
Compost provides many benefits for soil in home gardens.
It helps:
🌿 Nourish soil to support plant growth by providing key nutrients, such as phosphorous, potassium and nitrogen, and beneficial microbes for a healthy soil biome.
🌿 Improves soil structure by balancing soil density and keeps it loose to promote stronger root growth, meaning healthier plants.
🌿 Helps retain water.
Mulch also provides a variety of benefits for soil health and is used on the top layer of soil to help:
🍂 Suppress weed growth.
🍂 Conserve water usage by retaining soil moisture.
🍂 Prevent soil erosion.
🍂 Regulate temperature by insulating the soil; keeping it cool during the summer and warm during the winter for plants.
🍂 Provide key soil nutrients as microbes and insects consume the mulch over time and return nutritious by-products into the soil.
Healthy, strong plants begin with a healthy soil ecosystem - and compost and mulch are key to soil health.
Climate and Environmental Benefits
When we recycle food scraps into compost, we’re diverting food waste from landfills. Decomposing food waste in landfills releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas (GHG) 84 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere over a 20-year timespan than carbon dioxide, the most abundant GHG in our atmosphere.
The Free Compost and Mulch Program helps the City of Ventura comply with SB 1383, which mitigates the powerful effects of methane on climate change by aiming to divert 75% of organic waste from landfills by 2025 and requiring jurisdictions to procure recovered organic waste, such as compost and mulch.
Questions about the program?
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