Using Compost

Compost Markets and Use

As landfills reach their capacity and ban acceptance of organic wastes, composting is an increasingly viable means of organic waste management. Composting animal manures can also be a solution to manure management on the farm. Most importantly, the final product is a valuable soil resource. Compost can replace materials like peat and topsoil as seed starters, container mixes, soil amendments, mulches and natural fertilizers in commercial greenhouse production, farms, landscaping, turf and land remediation (Table 1).

There is a big potential demand for compost in plant production related industries—close to 900 million cubic yards of compost could be used in agricultural and horticultural applications and 0.6 million cubic yards for land fill covers and surface mine remediation (U.S. EPA, 1998).

Benefits of adding compost to soils

Compost is an organic matter source with a unique ability to improve the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of soils. It improves water retention in sandy soils and promotes soil structure in clayey soils by increasing the stability of soil aggregates. Adding compost to soilincreases soil fertility and cation exchange capacity and can reduce fertilizer requirements up to 50%. Soil becomes microbially active andmore suppressive to soil-borne and foliar pathogens. Enhanced microbial activity also accelerates the breakdown of pesticides and other synthetic organic compounds. Compost amendments reduce the bioavailability of heavy metals—an important quality in the remediation of contaminated soils.