Discover Compost Toronto

What is composting?

Composting can be thought of as a fertility amendment for soil, like an organic fertilizer! And Compost is also a method for returning the organic matter and life in plants to the soil, the way Mother Nature does in undisturbed ecosystems.

Have you ever noticed that the great ecosystems of the world, the great prairies, Amazon rain forest, West Coast forests and the Boreal forest that circles the globe, all exist without any human intervention? They are all self-sustaining, self-perpetuating and extraordinarily resilient. Because of the microbiology, in, on and under the soil

Biologically focused composting is a powerful method of restoring urban and peri-urban ecosystems.

What do we do at Compost Toronto?

Compost Toronto is nature-led – we ask what is happening within these healthy ecosystems around the world, what are the plants and trees doing to be so healthy and resilient; what can we learn? Why can’t we grow our gardens with optimal success year over year? What's happening in these soils of the world that keep on producing healthy plants? What do sandy soils, clay soils, clay loam and sandy loam soils have in common that they can all be so productive? A microbiome that is biologically diverse.
At Compost Toronto we let nature lead us by developing practices that promote, support, encourage and honour nature’s ways and do no harm. We attend to nature to learn what health is in our urban ecosystems.

Compost Toronto is grounded in science

We are based first in the research of scientist Dr. Elaine Ingham, who was the first to demonstrate the role of soil microbiology (Soil Food Web) in healthy soil and healthy plants. She asked the question, why are all of the great ecosystems of the world self-sustaining, and she learned why! She described the Soil Food Web, the living ecosystem that is self-sustaining in healthy soil. She also identified the unique relationship between plants and the Soil Food Web, describing how plants actually feed the microbes they need to thrive. Her two main tools in understanding the health of soils, and restoring soils’ functioning ecosystems, are the microscope and biologically focused compost!

Our mission

Compost Toronto is committed to growing the soil microbes that form the foundation of healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy people and healthy environment. We use this tool to rebuild the soil ecosystem and continuously check our progress using our microscopes. With care and planning we create biologically rich composts that can heal and restore soil ecosystems. We attend to the carbon and nitrogen, the oxygen and moisture, and measure and record the temperatures and times our microbes are growing. In a few short weeks, helping nature, we transform our piles into a living, rich and pleasing product that can change the life in your soil.

At Compost Toronto we love to show off. Join us as we make compost and see first hand the changes that are possible, as we transform the often smelly ingredients of compost on day one, into the living ecosystem of biologically rich compost.

Let us show you with our microscopes the incredible life in compost and healthy soil. Let us show you what dirt is, what over fertilized suffocated soils look like. Soil can be limitlessly complex and incredibly simple. Let us show you how both can be true.

Compost Toronto knows the secret of great compost is community!

Just as diversity and complexity makes for great soil, community built compost celebrates the diversity of our community members, it creates space for different food ways and land traditions to be shared.

Join us for our "Smashing Pumpkins” fall party, or our Community Compost Tea Parties, or join us for some ‘Compost Therapy’ as we bring together a bunch of ingredients and tend them with care until they form a healthy thriving soil ecosystem.

Together we share the wonder of nature. Whether it's a backyard composter, a worm bin, community garden, or environmental project!

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