Sustainability

Our sustainable products regenerate soil and protect our natural environments.

SOILCO has been capturing organic waste and transforming it into a range of organic soil improvers including compost and mulch since 1985.

Soil is a non-renewable resource. It can take many decades to create one centimetre of fertile soil, and just a few years to destroy it.

Sustainable soil regeneration is critical because our food supply and human health depend on healthy soil. Managing soil means managing climate change. Drawing down carbon from the atmosphere and capturing it in soil is a real solution to mitigating climate change. And it’s something we can all do, right now.

The health of our soil reflects our health and the health of our planet, because soil provides food. Climate adaptation, food security and clean water all depend on soil. Human society, and even our culture, are preserved through the preservation of soil health.

Living Soils

Think of soil like a living organism. In fact, soil is the most complex living organism in nature. SOILCO’s compost and mulch products are organic soil improvers. Unlike chemical or synthetic fertilisers, our organic soil improvers add carbon to soil. Without restoring carbon, the soil is depleted and fails to renew itself.

Carbon rich, organic fertilisers are high in organic nutrients and minimise reliance on artificial fertilisers. They feed the soil. Mineral (chemical) fertilisers feed plants, not soil. Instead of bringing carbon to soil, chemical fertilisers supply nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). Without the nutrient cycle fed by carbon, excess of these nutrients may leach out of the soil causing issues such as eutrophication in water.

Soil is depleted after every growth cycle without a new introduction of carbon. Carbon is the nutrient for microorganisms and critical to healthy soil. If you don’t have carbon in soil, you destroy biodiversity. The way to restore carbon in soil is by returning organic materials via compost.

Compost is a solution to growing healthy soil because it:

acts as a ‘slow release’ fertiliser,

nourishes and feeds the soil and boosts soil fertility,

sequesters carbon in soil to mitigate climate change,

improves soil’s resilience to shocks such as drought,

increases soil’s water holding capacity,

regulates soil temperature,

reduces water evaporation and erosion,

reduces the use of chemical inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides,

increases agricultural productivity without high input costs,

extends growing periods, and

improves downstream water quality.

A great deal of the carbon once stored in the soil is now stored in the atmosphere. We urgently need to return this carbon back to the soil.

The previous videos explain why soil and compost are so important to the regenerative loop of life.