The Standards and Practices Committee serves a critical role of keeping the science behind compost testing up-to-date. In the past this committee operated under the USCC, but unfortunately it has been a long time since our industry has had an active Standards and Practices Committee in operation.
We are pleased to report that the CCREF has taken the initiative to form this committee. It makes perfect sense that the Foundation takes on the development of this committee. The CCREF can attract high quality committee members and seek grant opportunities to fund research and upgrades to the Test Methods for the Examination of Compost and Composting (TMECC).
The S&P’s mission is to develop, maintain, advocate, and promote standards and best practice recommendations for the compost industry. This will be carried out through broad collaboration across the industry, under the direction of both the CCREF and USCC. It will incorporate the perspectives of researchers, labs, and boots-on-the-ground compost manufacturers. It is important to blend the perspectives of these stakeholders to keep the test methods both accurate and accessible to those taking compost samples and testing them, as well as to create test methods for new parameters as the market shows a need for them.
Dr. Tera Lewandowski, Senior Scientist in Growing Media for the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, is the committee chair and is in the process of inviting and selecting committee members. Hilary Nichols, STA Program Manager and Market Development Coordinator, is the USCC staff liaison. The committee will be comprised of a minimum of the STA Compost-Certified Laboratory Advisor, compost/soil scientists/PhD’s, compost manufacturers, to be chosen first from USCC’s Market Development Committee, and STA laboratory staff. S&P chair Dr. Lewandowski stated “We are excited to begin the work of updating and adding methods to the TMECC to ensure the most relevant methodologies and protocols are in use for sampling, monitoring, and analyzing materials at all stages of the composting process. The diverse group of individuals that have been selected to participate in the committee will allow us to develop methods that are scientifically correct, while still being accessible to all stakeholders that may need to use them.”