Benefits Spotlight: We’re Speaking For You!

Advocacy is routinely checked off as the top reason why people join USCC in the past four bi-annual member surveys.

This is accomplished for you in several ways:

1. The Legislative and Environmental Affairs Committee meets by phone monthly to report out on new regulations, legislation and other policy and permitting issues that affect our industry. States represented regularly on this call are: California, New York, Vermont, Ohio, Maryland/D.C., Colorado, Virginia, Michigan, Minnesota and Nebraska, with regular reports also from BPI. If your state is not here and you are a member who would like to attend to keep us up to date on your state’s activity, please email Cary Oshins, associate director in charge of advocacy. See also the LEAC web page here.
2. We regularly meet with U.S. EPA and other key stakeholders on persistent herbicides issues, including one instance as recently as this summer. Stay tuned as we prepare for a letter writing campaign on this issue in coming months. More persistent herbicides information is here.
3. We are in close communication with the Biodegradable Products Institute (in fact, Rhodes Yepsen, executive director, is a member, and Tim Goodman, the current board chair, is also on USCC’s board).  This keeps you in the loop when it comes to issues such as fluorinated chemicals and impact on compostable products, as well as the stakeholder conversation on working with compostables manufacturers for a strategy to better identify their products in compost feedstock.
4. Developing chapters is a key strategy to performing better advocacy, and we have doubled the number in the past three years. The reason? The best advocates are local! Chapters (and members from non-chapter states) bring issues to our attention, and we buoy their local lobbying with a national perspective - a letter, testimony when possible, or a letter writing campaign.

Have more questions about advocacy? Email us at uscc@compostingcouncil.org.