Compost Awareness Day - Free Event in Manassas, VA

Volunteers from the VA Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners program will be present to share materials on the benefits of composting and its use and information on yard waste and food composting at home. Keep Prince William Beautiful volunteers will share community beautification ideas and opportunities. In addition, attendees can take home a free compost sample in their own bucket. Event participants can also drop off food scraps to be composted. Prince William County's Solid Waste Division will sell backyard compost bins and provide information on the county's recycling programs. The Balls Ford Road Composting Facility walking tours will begin at 11 a.m.  and 12 noon.

This event in Prince William County supports International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW), the compost industry's largest and most comprehensive education initiative. ICAW promotes composting efforts in the backyard and, at large scale, commercial composting facilities, like our Balls Ford Road Compost Facility.

This year’s theme, “For Healthier Soil, Healthier Food…Compost!” According to the Compost Research & Education Foundation, the theme was chosen based on a serious world-wide issue that every nation, unfortunately, experiences: hunger.” The 2023 theme best reflects the goal of focusing on how compost can have a role in helping feed the world by making our soil healthier, which produces healthier food. By recycling organics into compost and using it on our farmlands, we create healthy soils that produce healthier food and higher yields. It also reduces the need for fertilizer and pesticides, improves water quality, conserves water, and stores carbon in soil - helping to reduce climate change. Compost not only helps the environment but also helps to decrease food shortages experienced around the world.