Frank Franciosi

Many of you have heard about the report released this year by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality on compostable products and their impact on compost (see Advocacy Bulletin below). There was a lot of discussion at the BioCycle West Coast conference in a panel dedicated to the issue.

A formal response from USCC will be forthcoming later this month after it’s adopted by our Board of Directors.

Meanwhile, our community will need to attack the issues raised by the report and the compost manufacturers.

• We all need to do a better job of outreach/education to upstream food waste generators and improve technologies on downstream sorting. This is the same problem the traditional recycling industry is facing.
• Compost producers and compostable product manufacturers should work together with the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) on a distinctive visual identification in compostable ware that makes it easier to sort from other non-compostable products.
• Advocates of composting should pressure states to adopt Model Compostable Labelling requirements, as has been done by California and Maryland and is under discussion in Minnesota and Washington State.
• States should also penalize and fine look-alike non-compostable products that try to cheat the system.
• Organics generators, compost manufacturers and collectors should adopt a system of inspections at multiple points in the collection stream.
• Compost facilities must make the effort to be run by properly trained and certified individuals to effectively break down compostable ware that has earned BPI certification.

Ultimately, it is the decision of each compost business as to what feedstock fits their business plan and operation. But working on these initiatives will make the decision easier.