Quality compost: an effective tool against climate change
According to the Met Office, last summer was the warmest extended period in 350 years and for the first time in more than a decade, the government granted three drought orders. Hotter summers, milder winters, storms, and unexpected heavy rain or snow showers appear to be becoming the norm.
With scientists warning of rising sea levels, extreme weather conditions could become ever increasing occurrences. So now is the time for landscapers to adopt methods that will support more effective water usage and, on a broader environmental theme, conserve levels of carbon in the soil. Compost made from recycled garden waste can play its part as a simple and effective defence against some of the challenges of climate change.
Here WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) highlights the key ways in which quality compost can help tackle the effects of changing weather patterns and protect our natural environment.
Retaining soil moisture
Compost improves soil structure through the addition of organic matter, leaving soil better able to soak up and retain water and therefore reducing the frequency with which plants need to be watered.
Taking steps to reduce water usage is a sensible business move and an important environmental consideration in today’s climate. When compared to expensive irrigation systems or time spent salvaging dried out parks, the potential cost and labour savings are very significant.
Cardiff County Council’s parks department has been putting locally made compost to good use in landscaping and seasonal planting projects across the city centre for a number of years. Robert Jones, Parks Maintenance Manager at Cardiff County Council, said: “Last summer was the driest and hottest I can remember in recent years. However, despite the dry weather conditions our flowerbeds thrived. We put this down to compost. Not only does it make the soil much easier to cultivate, but the soil is more friable, drains better and manages to hold moisture in dry conditions which means less watering is needed.”
Preventing soil erosion
Wind, rain, and pounding feet pose a significant threat to the condition of soil and these factors all increase the rate at which soil can erode.
Compost, however, contains the chemical building blocks which are the precursors to the creation of strong soil. Organic matter supports the creation of humic substances which bind soil particles into aggregates. These groups of particles bind to each other more strongly than to adjacent particles, keeping soil grounded and more resistant to erosion.
Counteracting climate change
Compost not only reduces the impact of climate change, it can play a direct role in counteracting carbon emissions. Work carried out by Cranfield University indicates that soils in England and Wales have been losing carbon at a rate of four million tonnes per year over the last 25 years. Soil acts as a huge ‘sink’ for long term storage and cycling of carbon. As organic matter levels fall, carbon is released into the environment. Compost can be used as part of a series of soil management activities to add organic matter to the soil and keep carbon locked in.
Professor Guy Kirk of Cranfield University said, “At least part of the losses we measured were due to climate change. With warmer conditions and changes in soil moisture, microbes in the soil turn over carbon faster, leading to more losses of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and this is a big contributor to global warming.”
A recent study from The Composting Association suggests that adding compost to the soil, and thereby significantly increasing the organic matter within it and helping contain carbon, has the potential to reduce the release of green house gases in the UK by up to 1.4Mt per year. That’s equivalent to removing over a million cars off our road each year.
Availability of quality compost
Quality compost is now readily available and easy to specify thanks to a number of initiatives. For more information visit www.wrap.org.uk
WRAP
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