The total potential of soils for adsorbing cations, expressed in milligram equivalents per kg of soil. Determined values depend somewhat on the method employed. compost: a routine measure of the binding potential of a soil; measures the soil's ability to remove negative ions from metals and other compounds, allowing the ions to form insoluble compounds and precipitate in the soil; determined by the amount of organic matter and the proportion of clay to sand; the higher the CEC, the greater the soil's ability to bind metals.