Our Final Thoughts Leading Up to the NOSB Fall Meeting

By Linda Norris-Waldt, Deputy Director

It's important to hear from our members – and we try not to overdo surveying you, but the question of compostable packaging and compost producers has been a main topic of discussion in USCC for the past couple of years.

So, to prepare for this year’s final National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) meeting in October in Portland, Oregon, the USCC took a quick pulse. Out of 947 eligible members, we heard from 217 of you on our survey. See the other article in the Top of the Pile section for the full suvey results.

The results showed a majority of our membership (78%) favors including certified compostable packaging in compost used for organic agriculture. Of course, that was followed by many cautionary comments about field testing and breakdown; greenwashing contamination, and better labeling and education; a call to not encourage more single-use products; and support for packaging companies devoting resources to reusables as well.

The NOSB's Crops Subcommittee has already written a report stating they don't recommend a blanket approval of compostables in compost destined for agriculture; they insist that each material come one-by-one to apply by the list. We'll see if the full NOSB accepts that recommendation, but nevertheless, this survey has helped us understand that – with guardrails – our membership is supportive of finding solutions so compost manufacturers who want to take compostables have the opportunity.

We want to thank everyone who responded to the survey for their participation. The USCC works hard to advocate for our members, and the best way we can is to get your input on decisions and policies that impact you. We also understand our members aren't a monolith, and we encourage continued discussion on these issues so that we can make the most well-informed decisions down the line.