What’s for Lunch? Not Composting

We have all seen the demand for both composting and compostable products grow exponentially during the past decade. It has been driven by consumers rejecting single-use plastics and increasing their awareness that compost is both a regenerative use of inedible food waste (Drawdown Solution #3) and a sink that sequesters carbon. The compost industry has watched traditional recycling push toward single stream with the consequence of driving the market into the negative. At the same time, we are intensely watchful of our own contamination problems. Yet demand is a steamroller that will not be stopped just because we say it must. We can be relevant … or we can be left behind.

The USCC Board and staff have worked hard in the past year to engage brand companies, compostable products manufacturers, The Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), and allied groups in discussions about the push for compostable products. We have always believed that facility owners have the final decision on the feedstock they accept to make their business model work for the market they have chosen for their finished compost product. It is essential that compostable products bring in food scrap with them. They need to go to facilities that have tested them in their specific facilities. Facilities all operate differently depending on their composting method and their operational business plan. Field testing is another way of checking how and when these products breakdown and also provides a good time to check how a facility is operating within the basic composting parameters. We also encourage that field testing be done by third party certification.

Compostables identification and financial support in the form of grants and incentives for our industry’s growth are two core issues for USCC right now. We are encouraged by BPI and the stakeholders, development of model labeling, and identification of compostable products and hope to see these in the coming months. We need open and engaged communication with the entire supply chain for food scrap composting to work. In the past, compost manufacturers have been ignored and policies have been created without our input. These practices must change. As a trade association, it is our duty to be at the table, and create conversations with all stakeholders in the supply chain whose decisions affect our members. This is one of the reasons we created the Corporate Compost Leadership Council, a group of brand companies dedicated to providing a feedback loop along with logistical and financial support to work with us in a circular economy.

Some in our industry may be uncomfortable that we are choosing to be part of this discussion, fearing that by listening to partners in The US Plastic Pact, we are heading down a slippery slope. But the opposite is true. Being part of the conversation is the only way to have our voice heard, and to temper aspirations that threaten our industry. We must be at the table to provide our input on the discussion of the end of life for compostable plastics. We do this not by burying our head in the sand, but by speaking out, informing, and educating so that the circular economy will work.

“If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re probably on the menu.” The USCC would much rather have be a place at the table.