The name of this holiday says it all. National Learn About Composting Day is observed annually on May 29th and, unsurprisingly, encourages people to take more interest in composting. For those who might not know, composting is the process of gathering organic material such as food scraps and yard waste.

This allows microorganisms to break them down into nutrient-rich soil known as compost. This process can be done in small backyard compost bins or in large-scale industrial operations. The purpose of creating the process is to prevent organic material from being tossed into landfills, where it creates methane and other gases in the anaerobic environment that exacerbate the global climate crisis.

The History of National Learn About Composting Day

Even though some people believe that composting is something new to the modern era, the truth is that composting has been practiced in one form or another for thousands of years, likely around the time that humankind began farming for the first time.

Current evidence shows that civilizations such as the ancient Scots have been planting crops in rotting manure for at least 7,000 years. Farmers who did this noticed that their plants grew better in the rotting organic material than they would otherwise.

The Ancient Chinese also used manures and rotten organic material to enrich their soils before planting. In North America, the process of composting was rather detailed, as indigenous peoples used fish, fish waste, rotting plant material, and animal manure to fertilize their crops.

Of course, this varies based on the unique properties of the soil and the climate conditions, but it was practiced all across the Americas. All of those things are what we learned from our research on the subject. What we didn’t learn during our research, however, was when Learn About Composting Day was actually created.

We’ve found conflicting sources on the origin of this holiday, so we’re just going to state that we don’t know when this holiday actually started. Its origin might reveal itself to us one day, but unfortunately, that day is not today.

Some Basic Facts About Composting

Below are some basic composting facts that we think everyone looking to research this holiday is going to want to take note of. So without further ado, let’s learn a little bit more about composting by looking at the following factoids.

• Composting reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers.
• Aeration and moisture are important parts of composting.
• Depending on the size of the bin or pile, composting can take several weeks to several months.

Observing National Learn About Composting Day

Composting isn’t all that difficult to do, so we encourage everyone celebrating this holiday to learn about the process. We’ve included some basic facts about composting above, but for a more detailed look into how it is done, we encourage people to do additional research.

While researching this subject and holiday, people can feel free to spread the word about this holiday using the hashtag #LearnAboutCompostingDay online.