Frank Franciosi

USCC met this summer with U.S. EPA officials to again present our case against the labeling and use of persistent herbicides. This has been an issue for compost producers for almost a decade, and now the timing is critical. The re-registration date for six of these these herbicides grows closer, and the ability to restrict their use disappears.

The Advocacy Update in this edition of Compost Communicator details our meeting and outline actions you, our members, can take to help with this effort. In the coming weeks, you will receive talking points and directions for how to comment on how these herbicides can hurt your business. We ask you to request that EPA meet the demands of the USCC when it comes to re-registration of these herbicides. We urge you to pick up your pen and join the campaign when it begins, whether you are a compost manufacturer, community composter, compostable products industry or equipment representative, concerned citizen or non-profit. It will require hearing from a diverse number of voices to be successful!

The CCREF Trustees recently made the commitment to have all new research papers sent out to be peer reviewed when it is relevant. This new process will increase the scientific rigor of the research and move it to a higher standard, with the goal of strengthening the information offered to the industry with the endorsement of science on its side. The recently completed soluble salts literature review is currently out for peer review, and another research project on air emissions will be completed this fall and sent out for review at that time.

Meet Elsa Higby, Todd Dunderdale and Agustin Ortiz, USCC's newest certified composting professionals and compost operations managers!

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Don’t forget to check in to the blog to see this month’s newest blog posts:

• Kellie Kish, City of Minneapolis: Minneapolis Residential Organics: Less than 1% Contamination (Part 1). A city without contamination? Yes, it can be done. Read here about their success. Part 2 will describe some of their best practices coming alter this fall.
• Ryan Cooper, Rubicon Global: Sizing Your Commercial Composting Needs. Read here about how Ryan spends his days working with generators and clients on just this question.

 Click here to read all the blog posts.

Do you have experience/interest in local government zoning ordinances and compost facility zoning? We need YOU on this task force. We meet by phone and communicate by email as well.

Contact Chair Marcus Zbinden at mzbinden@co.carver.mn.us.

The US Composting Council met with officials from the Environmental Pollution Agency’s (EPA’s) Pesticide Re-evaluation Division in Washington, D.C., in August to discuss the issues of the family of pyridine and pyrimidine carboxylic acid herbicides (persistent herbicides, or PH) affecting incoming feedstocks at composting facilities. We met with representatives of various EPA pesticide evaluation departments, EPA’s Department of Resource Recovery & Conservation and representatives from Bayer Crop Sciences and Corteva Agri-Sciences.

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Members in California, Colorado, New Jersey and Vermont have been working with legislation on various issues affecting the composting industry in their state.

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Did you know that you can advertise the job openings in your company with USCC? Our software allows you to upload the position description and control when it begins and when it expires. We regularly post these openings and the Career Center on social media.

We would like to see this benefit take off! When we regularly have at least 10 openings on the Career Center, we'll begin to invest some social media advertising in the Career Center, so please help us fill it up! Find the Career Center here (under Develop Professionally on our menu) and put your job openings in here (must be logged in to do so).

Our new Young Professionals Leadership Team has organized and is looking for more Young Professionals - officially defined as people between the ages of 21 and 40 working in organics recycling businesses; non-profit organizations; compost marketing, manufacturing or allied industries such as equipment and services; regulation and policy at any government level; compostable products companies; research and education sector; or anyone with an interest in advancing compost as per the USCC’s Mission and Vision.

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Celeste McMickle

New York-based USCC member and mentor Celeste McMickle recently joined the USGBC on their TRUE Zero Waste Certification program as director of client solutions for the Mid-Atlantic, East Coast and Midwest regions. TRUE Certification aims to support facilities and businesses in achieving their zero waste goals by providing a clear path to certification using a points-based rating system and educational tools such as the TRUE Advisor program.

Celeste joins the USGBC with a background of working as a sustainability consultant and waste expert. She was a speaker at the 2019 USCC conference on community engagement in municipal compost collection services. Learn more at true.gbci.org or email her at cmcmickle@usgbc.org.

Deep stacking with EDGE equipment

Equipment manufacturer member EDGE, through distribution partner Focus Enviro, supplied machinery to Biomix, a member of the Australian Organics Recycling Association, which partners with the U.S. compost industry for International Compost Awareness Week. Focus Enviro took a look at Biomix’s production process, in particular ther compost turning methods, which were able to increase volumes through deep stacking of compost instead of using excavators and loading circles with a higher cost and slower processing time. For more info, see the case study here.

This month's member spotlight features RDO Manufacturing, a Silver member based in Kelso, Wash. USCC spoke with Matt Gurney, director of sales, about their business.

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The Soil and Waste Resources Discipline in the College of Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) seeks a motivated MSc student interested in soil science, waste management and/or composting. This work is part of a multi-institutional and multi-state project focused on the use of composting to decompose deer carcasses in a Midwest climate and to deactivate infectious prions in chronic wasting disease-infected deer carcasses.

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