Caught Up in the Federal Maelstrom

	Photo by Cameron Smith on Unsplash

Linda Norris-Waldt
Deputy Director

The compost industry, along with the rest of the United States, is adjusting to a new reality in Washington with the inauguration of President Donald Trump. We at the USCC are watching and planning possible action based on differing scenarios as we wait to see how the actions of the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, shake out.

The US Composting Council is feeling the same pain that many of our members have with their frozen grants from programs like the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program, where Table to Farm Compost owner Monique DiGiorgio is coping with frozen funds (see article here). Recipients of Composting and Food Waste Reduction grants are in similar hiatus. Those two programs brought $23.4 million of economic development to communities before the latest 25 recipients had their announcements frozen. USCC’s Conservation Innovation Grant of more than $4 million for trials to study the impact of compost on range and farmland has similarly been frozen, as well.

We understand the need to ensure the viability and return on investment to the American people for all of these programs, and we hope that DOGE gives composting the opportunity to prove its long-term ROI. As you know, we have lots of resources like our compost benefits webpage that shows the reason compost provides proven ecosystem benefits such as stormwater management, erosion control, and drought resistance for the soils – and yes, we hear the new accepted term for the frequent and destructive storms of the past couple years is now “extreme weather events.”

If we were given the chance to explain, we would also love to tell DOGE about the economic impact of the compost industry. We would use studies like the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s on jobs created from composting (see study here), showing that four compost jobs are employed for every 10,000 tons of material, compared to 2.1 jobs in landfill work and only about one in incineration. That’s twice – and even four times – the number of workers paying taxes and contributing to the economy. The USCC’s Composting State of Practice Study shows, for example, that an average of 13 pieces of heavy equipment are busy toiling at each of the 200 facilities that responded, and BioCycles’ 2023 study shows that composting facilities grew composting access by 49% from 2021 to 2023.

We could make our argument about the economic ripple effect to local economies for construction jobs to build facilities, for equipment bought and maintenance jobs for equipment, and for local suppliers who sustain these businesses on a day-to-day basis.

We will continue to turn our attention to states who regulate our industry and directly benefit from the economic impact above and look to them to expand funding through grant programs. See this table for our 2023 assessment. We’ll also work with partners to develop resources for compost manufacturers to find private funding to expand or begin building. We will advocate for bills like Maryland’s HB42, which provides a $2 tipping fee assessment to create a grant program to expand composting in that state.

While the leadership of the U.S. may want to step back to put a hold on federal priorities, the need for soil health mitigation through compost practices only continues to grow. We can’t afford to stop.