Compost Creates Healthier Soil for Stronger Ecosystems and Cleaner Waterways

Unless you’re working in your garden, you are likely not thinking about soil health, but healthy soil is critical for a healthy planet and healthy population. About 95% of the food we eat is grown in soil. Topsoil plays a vital role in carbon sequestration, filtering water, enhancing biodiversity, and supporting natural habitats. Healthy soil even helps regulate the Earth’s temperature via vegetation growth, and it provides essential resources we depend on such as lumber, fiber, and fuels.

Both manmade and natural causes contribute to soil degradation, such as deforestation and development, intensive agriculture practices like monocropping and industrialized farming, the overuse of fertilizer, chemical leaching, and erosion from wind and water, in addition to other physical and chemical actions.

While scientists have studied the importance of healthy soil since 1910, in the 2010s, advanced tools gave researchers more data to understand the connection between the role of soil biodiversity and soil ecosystems. With this new information came a push for widespread global education to increase awareness about the importance of sustainable soil management practices to reduce soil erosion, safeguard biodiversity, and protect the nutrient balance of soil composition in an effort to protect the global food supply and the changing climate.

Raising awareness about the importance of soil health conservation has helped introduce more sustainable practices, but ongoing education is essential as soil is a finite, non-renewable resource.

In fact, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that it takes over 1000 years to make 1 centimeter of soil.

It’s critical to protect and preserve the world’s existing soil, and there is one very important material that everyday people, non-governmental organizations, and government agencies can integrate into landscape management and water protection and that material is compost.

What is Compost?

Compost is not soil; it is a biologically stable amendment that builds soil health. Compost is made from the controlled aerobic decomposition of organic materials by microorganisms. The process requires the right combination of organic feedstocks, air, water, and temperature. The result is what some call “black gold”—a microbial rich organic material that is highly beneficial for our environment.

The next time you eat an apple, instead of trashing the core, put it in your city’s compost bin. Fruit and vegetable scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds, yard debris, and other organic ingredients make up the feedstocks used to create compost.

In fact, by composting organic waste instead of sending it to the landfill, not only does it save landfill space, but it prevents a significant amount of methane production which is 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Composting organics cuts down on greenhouse gas emissions and generates an essential material that significantly improves the biological, chemical, and structural health of soil.

How is Compost Beneficial to Soil Health?

Amending soil with stable compost twice a year is one of the most important things you can do to improve the health of your landscape. Compost is rich in microbes that form the essential foundation to a healthy ecosystem. When added as an amendment, the microbes in compost improve soil structure by creating an organic glue that binds soil particles together. Strong soil structure allows for improved aeration, increased oxygen flow, and balanced moisture retention.

Microbes are the primary force behind nutrient cycling, converting carbon, phosphorus, sulfur, and nitrogen into simpler forms that simplify absorption for plants and other organisms. In fact, microbes store atmospheric carbon, and, because of this, healthy soil plays a major role in sequestering carbon and regulating the Earth’s climate. These microbial communities create a diverse and thriving soil microbiome that suppresses pathogens and diseases—protecting plants, animals, and humans from harmful organisms.

Degraded soil is often compacted, lacking the biological structure required to absorb water: so instead of absorption, water flows over the soil, carrying pollutants with it. Functionally, compost improves soil’s ability to retain water while, at the same time, the microbes that have strengthened the structure of the soil help improve drainage. The rich microbial environment supports the soil’s ecosystem, creating a strong foundation for healthier root growth. Whether it’s raking it into the lawn in early spring and late fall, adding two to four inches to garden beds before and after the growing season, or blending it with mulch and placing it around the base of your trees, integrating compost into landscape maintenance is a small effort that makes a big difference in plant health and the environment as a whole.

How Does Compost Keep Contaminants Out of Waterways?

Strong soil structure is not only important for plant growth, it is highly beneficial for reducing flooding, improving water quality, and protecting marine life. When soil is compacted and devoid of microbial activity, it erodes more easily because it cannot adequately absorb water.

High-traffic areas, vast fields of intensive agriculture, and places with prolonged drought and little vegetation lack organic matter. Without soil structure, the existing soil compacts and puts these areas at risk for flooding. Thus, when it rains, large volumes of runoff and sediment wash into stormwater systems and through waterways, carrying pollutants that degrade marine environments. Applying sustainable soil conservation practices to build organic matter and improve soil quality can minimize the risk of flooding and reduce the amount of toxins that contaminate waterways. Of course, compacted soil is not the only way pollutants reach our waterways. Urban environments with large expanses of non-permeable surfaces also pose a threat to water quality and aquatic life.

For decades, scientists have been working to identify the cause of the rapid decline of coho salmon in Puget Sound and, just recently, researchers confirmed 6PPD-quinone, a chemical that prevents tires from degrading, is the toxicant. This chemical from vehicle tires causes what’s known as “urban runoff mortality syndrome,” a condition that kills coho salmon before they spawn. Healthy salmon populations play a vital role in our ecosystem, with approximately 138 species depending on the fish for food, including our Southern Resident orca population.

From tire dust to pesticides, herbicides, petroleum hydrocarbons, excess nutrients from lawn fertilizers, and heavy metals, tens of thousands of chemicals make their way into the Puget Sound, harming delicate ecosystems and aquatic life and impacting water quality. To reduce and/or prevent the contaminants in runoff from reaching waterways, biofilters such as bioswales, vegetation buffers, and constructed wetlands are proven solutions that trap pollutants and efficiently filter stormwater. And, a soil-compost mixture is central to the success of these applications:

Physically, the porous structure of soil and compost slows water, filtering toxins, and trapping bacteria and pollutants.
Biologically, when pollutants filter through a soil-compost mixture rich in microbial activity, the microbes secrete enzymes that break down organic contaminants into carbon dioxide, water, and salts, and use these elements as a food source.
Chemically, adsorption attracts and binds contaminants to soil and compost, immobilizing them and accelerating decomposition.

Stable compost and healthy soil are two critical solutions for improving water quality and protecting the health of marine environments. Building compost filter berms between roadways and stormwater systems is easy and essential to reducing soil erosion and protecting and improving the health of all waterways in Western Washington—from Padden Creek to the Puget Sound.

We Take Compost Seriously

By increasing carbon sequestration, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, building flood and drought resilience, improving biodiversity, and protecting soil and restoring soil health, compost plays a fundamental role in supporting our terrestrial environment, protecting water quality, and the health of our marine environments.

Since 1976, Lenz Enterprises has been invested in creating sustainable solutions for Western Washington’s region. Central to our operation is our GreenBlenz Compost. We’re proud to partner with the green recycling programs in King, Snohomish, and Skagit counties to process organic materials into premium compost that is certified with the Seal of Testing Assurance by the U.S. Composting Council. Using state-of-the-art advanced ASP technology, we adhere to strict processing protocols, ensuring our GreenBlenz Compost and our OMRI-listed GreenBlenz Compost Organic meet stringent requirements and raise the bar to excellence.

Thanks for Reading!

If you found this article helpful, get to know us by following Lenz Enterprises on Facebook and Instagram. We regularly provide education about soil and earth materials, gardening advice, and plenty of humor too! If you’re located in western Washington and need compost, soil, mulch, sand, or gravel, give us a call at 360-629-2933—we’re here to help!

Stanwood, WA