The International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW) Committee invites YOU to get involved in ICAW 2022. We’re looking for anyone, 9th grade (age 14) or older from anywhere in the world, interested in participating in our annual ICAW Poster Contest. The winning poster will be used to promote International Compost Awareness Week 2022 which will be held May 1 -7, 2022.

POSTER THEME: Recipe for Regeneration: Compost

Each year, the ICAW Committee chooses a new theme for the year.  The theme highlights the overall regenerative agriculture movement and how compost and organics recycling fit into that process. Regenerative agriculture is a system that focuses on improving soil health using agricultural practices with the idea that healthier soil will lead to healthier, more nutrient-rich crops and, ultimately, less carbon in the atmosphere through increased carbon sequestration. Where does compost and organics recycling fit in? Compost, when added to farmland, gardens, yards, and other landscapes creates healthier soil and crops by providing food for soil microbes in the ground. These microbes enrich the quality of the soil while also sequestering carbon in the soil through photosynthesis, a tool for combating climate change. Just as a chef pulls together the best ingredients to create the perfect recipe, the 2022 theme, Recipe for Regeneration: Compost, focuses on the crucial role recycling our food scraps and yard trimmings plays by creating compost, which when added to soil results in a recipe that makes our food more nutritious, the air we breathe cleaner and our climate healthier overall.

It’s easy to enter! Here’s how it works: The poster contest winner will have their poster reproduced and distributed to thousands nationwide. It will be the official 2022 International Compost Awareness Week poster and featured on the CREF website as well as on the US Composting Council website too. The winning “poster artist” will have their name posted on the CREF website and will be included on print materials and in press releases in association with our annual ICAW celebration. The successful poster winner will also receive a $500 Prize.

The contest is open to anyone 9th grade (14+) or older from anywhere in the world. This is an international contest. The winning design will be chosen by the end of November. Enter your design using the online entry form below. Contest ends Nov. 1st by midnight (ET)

This is YOUR opportunity to display your creative talents and show your belief in organics recycling and in the benefits of using compost!

For questions, please send an email to info@compostfoundation.org

Meet the ICAW 2021 Poster Contest Winner

This year’s winner of the ICAW 2021 Poster Contest is Anastasia Skachko. Out of hundreds and hundreds of entries from around the world, her entry was chosen. She is a self-taught freelance digital artist from Kaliningrad, Russia. She likes to create unique fantasy worlds and creatures and would describe her works as cute and whimsical filled with mystery and magic. Currently, her family has a country house with a garden (where they plant tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, beetroots etc.) and they do have a compost pile where they throw organic left-overs and plan to use the compost next season in their garden. This is how she described what she was thinking about when she did her poster design, “I imagined compost as cute little creatures who share their love with plants and vegetables which help them grow.”

We received so many wonderful poster design entries. Out of all the entries, these were the top 14. Congratulations to these top 14 entries who rated so high with everyone who voted, and thank you to everyone who took the time to enter the contest. Hopefully it was fun to create your design and it helped a lot of people from throughout the world learn more about ICAW and the many benefits of compost use and organics recycling.