112 results for tag: compost
Optimizing the Composting Process: Research Updates from Port-au-Prince
Gavin McNicol, who has long been active in SOIL’s research partnership with Dr. Rebecca Ryals, had the opportunity to visit us at SOIL’s composting waste treatment site just outside of Haiti’s capital city in earlier this year. In 2016, Gavin joined Dr. Ryals ongoing research investigating SOIL’s climate impact and helped spearhead research on the optimal conditions for the composting process. Gavin took a moment to share an update on the ongoing research as well as a sneak peek on a new research project that we are workin...
Showcasing Possibility at COP24
Earlier this month, SOIL was honored to receive the United Nations' Momentum for Change Award in Planetary Health at COP24 in Katowice, Poland. Momentum for Change honors innovative and transformative solutions that address both climate change and wider economic, social and environmental challenges. Recognized as a Lighthouse Activity, SOIL’s work is honored for being a practical, scalable and replicable example of a groundbreaking intervention to tackle climate change. Check out this video showcasing the Planetary Health award winners (narrated by Sir David Attenborough!): Planetary Health: Narrated Sir David Attenborough from Momentum ...
How SOIL is acting local and thinking global
Thanks to the support of our friends and donors around the world, SOIL is able to have quite a large impact in Haiti already. If you drive into the city of Cap-Haitien on a SOIL collection day, you’ll see bright green EkoLakay containers stacked up alongside the rode and a fleet of green three-wheeled motorcycles zipping along picking up containers and visiting customers. We are a team of more than 70, working through rain storms, floods, and holidays to ensure that our household toilets and composting waste treatment operation hums along. For every home on our service, SOIL ensures an affordable, dignified, and safe place to use a toilet. For every ...
Kickstarting Healthy Student Gardens with Three Tons of Compost
The compost that SOIL produces through our urban ecological sanitation service is a safe and organic, agricultural-grade soil amendment that restores the health of soils and helps Haiti's farmers produce more food. It also, as of recently, helping students in schools across the country learn how to garden. The Haitian Ministry of Education (MENFP) has begun actively promoting agriculture across the country's schools, by asking that each of them has at least one standard garden maintained by staff, students, and parents alike. And guess what? They're using SOIL's compost in the educational gardens! The MENFP is hoping to introduce students to ...
On Climate Change Adaptation: SOIL Research Updates
As the devastating impacts of climate change continue to mount around us, especially in vulnerable frontline communities like the ones SOIL serves in Haiti, we’re more motivated than ever to grow SOIL’s climate-positive sanitation solution, which transforms a public health crisis facing cities around the world into a restorative solution for the planet. Visit this page to learn about how SOIL's regenerative sanitation service mitigates the impacts of climate change.
On Adaptation
Scientists and land managers have discovered that compost can help mitigate climate change by enhancing the ability of ecosystems to pull carbon dioxide from the ...
Restoring Long Term Soil Health in Haiti with Organic Compost
Last summer, we shared results from a research project that was taken on by master’s students at Cranfield University. The students compared the efficiency of SOIL's organic compost, Konpòs Lakay, to commercial grade chemical fertilizers available on the market. This comparison was used two core Haitian crops: tomato plants and moringa trees. When the preliminary results were made available last summer, we were excited to share that the plants that were grown in soil with SOIL's agricultural grade compost had actually out performed their counterparts that were grown using traditional chemical products. Now that the final results have been ...
One Year and 100,000 Containers Later
Every month SOIL’s program directors document key metrics which allow SOIL to monitor and evaluate progress towards our strategic goals. One of the dozens of performance indicators we keep a close eye on is the number of containers that are collected from EkoLakay toilets and then dumped at one of SOIL’s waste treatment facilities. Tracking containers is a way for SOIL to know how much waste is removed from the urban communities where our sanitation service operates, waste that would otherwise go on to contaminate water and spread disease. It also helps our teams anticipate how much compost we’ll have for sale once the waste has been fully ...
New Research Demonstrates Safety of SOIL’s Waste Treatment Process
Photo: Vic Hinterlang
SOIL is committed to fully treating 100% of the wastes from each and every household EkoLakay toilet – and we take that responsibility very seriously! Our treatment process has been developed alongside global experts and exceeds standards set by the World Health Organization for the safe treatment of human waste. Once the collected waste from the sanitation service has been treated and transformed into compost at one of SOIL’s two composting sites in Haiti, we sell the compost, Konpòs Lakay, across the country with a guarantee that it’s pathogen free. But how do we know? Ensuring Pathogenic Die Off SOIL tests for ...
Juno7: All About SOIL’s Organic Compost
SOIL's lush, organic compost, Konpòs Lakay, works to mitigates the impacts of climate change, rebuilds soil health, and helps farmers increase their yields in Haiti. As we produce more and more compost, we've been excited to collaborate with Konsome Lokal, an organization working promote local Haitian products, to reach new markets and customers for the soil amendments. After attending one of their fair's featuring 100% local Haitian products last month, we sat down with Juno7 to talk all about our compost.
Excerpts from the Interview:
"SOIL works to create social business models that provide sanitation, treat waste, and produce compost. We hope ...
New Research Shows SOIL’s Compost Often More Effective Than Chemical Fertilizer
Photo credit: Tony Marcelli
Last June, we introduced our readers to Estrella Ardanza and Susana Perez Bejar, two Cranfield University students who have been busy studying the impact of SOIL’s Konpòs Lakay compost on native Haitian plants for their Master's theses. After months of hard work and thoughtful collaboration, we’re excited to share that the numbers have been crunched and the theses have been written. SOIL is dedicated to developing innovative and research-based ecological sanitation solutions here in Haiti and for years we’ve partnered with farmers and research institutions to study the impact of our compost on local core crops. ...