The project
During the 2025 and 2026 editions of International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW), Spora conceptualized and developed a set of awareness actions for the Agència de Residus de Catalunya to bring compost, the organic matter cycle and soil quality closer to citizens.
International Compost Awareness Week is an initiative celebrated annually around the world to inform and raise awareness about composting, explaining where compost comes from, how it is used and what environmental, agronomic and social benefits it brings.
The proposal starts from a strategic decision: not to wait for citizens to come to compost, but to bring compost to the spaces where citizens already are.
Over two years, compost has entered Girona Temps de Flors, appeared by surprise in squares in major Catalan cities, traveled across the territory and gone one step further: it has taken to a stand-up comedy stage in downtown Barcelona.
The challenge
Every time we correctly separate the organic fraction, we start a process that turns waste into a resource. But between the everyday gesture of separating organic waste and the compost that eventually returns to the soil, there is a gap that often makes it hard to understand the value of the process.
The challenge was to make the relationship organic matter → compost → soil → plants → food → life tangible.
And to do so beyond traditional environmental awareness formats.
We didn’t want to speak only to people who already know about composting. We wanted to find new contexts, new languages and new entry points to reach different audiences.
The approach
If we want to reach new audiences, we have to go find them and change the language.
Both editions share this strategy, but they evolve.
- In 2025 we make the cycle visible and bring compost across the territory.
- In 2026 we dig deeper into what compost gives back to our daily lives and explore new languages of awareness-raising.
2025 · Soil is life
The 2025 edition is built around the concept “Soil is life.”
The idea places soil at the center of the story and connects the correct separation of organic matter with compost production and, ultimately, with soil fertility, agricultural production, biodiversity and green spaces.
The strategy unfolds through two events:
- Girona Temps de Flors.
Spora designs a visually striking installation integrated into the official route of one of Catalonia’s most popular events. The goal is to take advantage of a context where plants and flowers are already the stars, to explain what they need for all of this to be possible. - Surprise actions. Curiosity as an entry point
The second activation uses a completely different strategy: first spark curiosity, only reveal the message afterward. In busy spaces in Lleida, Barcelona and Tarragona, opaque structures appear, inviting passersby to step inside.
Outside, a question: What do a strawberry and lavender have in common?
The answer can only be found inside.
The reactions generated inside feed an audiovisual strategy in three moments: mystery, reveal and outreach. The physical experience thus becomes digital content capable of extending the action’s reach.
In 2026 the strategy evolves.
If the first year had made visible how organic matter transforms and returns to the soil, now we focus on what that soil gives back to us.
And we concentrate the edition on two major, high-visibility actions: a new installation at Girona Temps de Flors and Cicle Viu — Stand-up Comedy in Barcelona.
These are two very different experiences, but they share the same strategy: using everyday, cultural languages to open new entry points for environmental awareness.
- Girona Temps de Flors. Compost nourishes.
For the second year running, compost enters Girona Temps de Flors. But the story moves forward, and we show what this compost is capable of producing. The apple becomes the thread running through the whole experience.
The installation features 80 apple trees planted with compost, vegetation and various outreach elements explaining the relationship between correctly separating organic matter, compost production, soil fertility and food production.
The message sums it up: Want apples? Separate your organic waste.
The installation makes the cycle intuitively understandable: organic matter → compost → soil → apple tree → apple.
The experience goes further: visitors can walk among the apple trees, talk with environmental educators, taste apple juice and take compost home.
The environmental story becomes a sensory experience: seeing, touching, tasting and taking home a part of the cycle. - Cicle Viu — Stand-up Comedy. Compost takes the stage
The second major action of 2026 takes communicative experimentation even further.
The question is: Can we talk about composting without running a composting activity? The answer is Cicle Viu.
Spora conceptualizes a stand-up comedy event in a public space in which organic matter, composting and the cycle of life become material for comedy.
This isn’t about adding a stand-up set to an environmental event. It’s about turning humor into the language of awareness-raising.
Awareness-raising doesn’t interrupt the show — it’s part of it. Cicle Viu carries compost into unexpected cultural territory and explores a different way of reaching audiences who would rarely take part in a conventional composting activity.
Learnings
Awareness-raising also has to step outside its comfort zone. This project has confirmed to us that, in order to reach different audiences, it is not always necessary to explain more.
Sometimes it has to be explained from another perspective. Over two years, we have explored surprise, play, food, culture and humour as gateways to the same message.
Because the experience does not replace the content: it creates the conditions for the content to reach further.
And because compost is not just the final result of the transformation of organic matter. It is what allows the cycle to start again.