The USCC is so excited to be able to connect with our membership in this year of COVID quarantine at our annual conference. It has been almost a year since we all got together in Charleston, and we are glad that we had that time together before everything went into quarantine. Thankfully, the USCC Board decided we could still stay engaged, and safe at the same time, by holding a virtual conference experience. For the last five months, the entire organization has been working to adapt a multi-day family reunion into a two-day virtual experience.

We can say, with pleasure, that we have a great experience planned for you! Our virtual platform allows for meaningful interactions while organizing dozens of networking opportunities into a single space. With 35 speakers, including Paul Hawken, author of Drawdown, movie director Rob Herring, an opening plenary featuring an international panel with compost industry leaders from six major countries, and a lineup of top professionals from across the industry, VIRTUAL COMPOST2021 will have the brain power to facilitate a fruitful educational and networking experience. The conference starts in just one week. The entire council is enthusiastic facilitate the connection of more than 20 sponsors and 30 exhibitors with the more than 500 registered attendees.

And, the USCC is already planning ahead for COMPOST2022. We will bring back our in-person experience from January 24-27, 2022 in Austin, Texas. This will be our 30th annual conference, and we will be going ALL OUT!

The US Composting Council announced last month the results of its annual Board of Directors election. Newly elected officers along with four new board members will take their seats this month.

Newly elected as President is Brian Fleury, WeCare Denali, who has served on the board for eight years. Incoming Vice President will be Pierce Louis, Dirt Hugger; Treasurer will be Russell Faldik, New Earth; and Secretary will be Jennifer Trent, Iowa Waste Reduction Center.

Elected as new members to the board are:

• Ryan Cooper, Rubicon Global;
• Meredith Danberg-Ficarelli, Common Ground Compost;
• Samantha Fleischner, Pierce County, WA/Waste Connections; and
• Melissa Tashjian, Compost Crusader.

Board member Tim Goodman, Natureworks, was re-elected to another term.

The new board members join the executive committee and continuing board members Jeff Dannis, Howard County (MD) Department of Public Works; Bob Schanz, Barnes Nursery; Eileen Banyra, Community Compost Company; Joseph DiNorscia, Laurel Valley Soils; and Bob Yost, A1 Organics.

"It is wonderful to see the enthusiasm of these new board members," said outgoing President Patrick Geraty. "I also want to thank Robert Michitsch of the University of Wisconsin, Jim Cowhey of JPM Development; Sarah Martinez, now with The Clorox Company, and Jeff Bradley of Vermeer for their dedicated service. We're also grateful to Joe DiNorscia and Bob Yost, board members who finished their terms on the Executive Committee." Geraty will hold the Past President position in the coming year.

The new Board and Officers will be introduced at the Members Meeting at Virtual COMPOST2021 later this month.

New USCC board members are, clockwise from top left, Ryan Cooper, Meredith Danberg-Ficarelli, Samantha Fleischner, and Melissa Tashjian.

USCC has hired an intern to organize the final analysis and stakeholder stages for version 2 of the Model Rules template, which addresses changes in the compost industry since the first version was issued in 2012.

"Hello! My name is Megan Lundequam, and I am so excited to join the US Composting Council team for this Model Rules Project. I graduated this past spring from the University of Florida, where I spent five years studying Environmental Science and Agricultural Education and Communication. I have a strong interest in society’s relationship with and understanding of science and how we can foster this relationship to collectively make wise and sustainable decisions moving forward. I am now a first year Master of Environmental Management candidate at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, specializing in Environmental Economics and Policy. Outside of school, things that make me happy include my two yellow Labs, Moby and Jax, live music, practicing yoga, surfing, scuba diving, sailing, riding my bike, and these days, puzzling. I can’t wait to get to know you all!"

The USCC Young Professional group continues to deliver outstanding content for our membership. This webinar, titled There’s More than One Way to Recycle Food Scraps, was a resounding success. With over 140 in attendance, the YP’s, lead by Webinar Committee Chair Felipe Pedrazzi, delivered three fantastic speakers. Josh Halsey from the Peconic Land Trust taught us about their Bokashi, Steve Churchill from The Urban Worm gave us a foundation in large scale Vermicomposting, and Paul Rabaut from Suncoast Compost, taught us the basics of Black Soldier Flies and showed us how ferociously 10,000 black soldier flies can eat through a Big Mac.

Read below to learn more about the USCC Young Professionals Group.

Are you a young professional passionate about sustainability, committed to expanding the compost industry nation/worldwide, and looking to chat with other young professionals who will be attending COMPOST2021? Well, we've got just the event for you! Come join the US Composting Council’s Young Professionals Group at their COMPOST2021 Happy Hour on January 26 from 6 to 7 p.m. (Registration to VIRTUAL COMPOST2021 required.)

The Young Professionals Group began in October 2013 for those aged 18 to 40 (or with less than five years in the industry) to connect with each other through networking and volunteer events as well as to have the opportunity to learn from and interact with leaders in the compost industry. 

Here are some highlights of what they do together:

• Emerging Composter Competition: The Emerging Composter Competition allows young professionals to present their ideas in innovation and research for the composting industry to industry professionals during the annual conference for a chance to win prize money.
• Mentoring Program: The Mentoring Program allows young professionals to be paired with seasoned composting industry experts to get mentoring on things like entrepreneurship, facility management, compost technology, and policy work, to name a few.
• Webinars: The Young Professionals Group hosts webinars all year on topics, such as vermicomposting, Seal of Testing Assurance (STA), weather/geographic impacts on composting, and how to get a job in composting.
• Quarterly Calls, Newsletters, & Happy Hours: The Young Professionals Group hosts quarterly video calls and sends out quarterly newsletters to connect across the world. In addition, virtual happy hours are held occasionally to continue to build a stronger community.
• Conference Happy Hours & Volunteer Events: While at USCC annual conferences, the Young Professionals Group sponsors a happy hour at a local bar and volunteers the next day, after the conference, to do a local composting project, i.e. constructing composting bins for the community.

Once you are a member, you can join a committee to make some of this work happen!

When USCC’s consultant, Wendy Scott, interviewed chapter leaders for the Chapter Beyond 2020 Study during Q2 and Q3 last year, she said one of the most frequent requests was for templates for various communications, governance documents and websites.

After the Chapter Leaders meeting in December 2020, in which attendees split into breakout groups to discuss the issue, a list of "Top Templates” was produced, including:

• Bylaws
• Instructions for Form 990 completion
• Event flyers
• Budget and finance templates

The first of those, a bylaws template, has been assembled by integrating templates from non-profit governance websites and the existing documents for the New Jersey, North Carolina, and Virginia chapters. Next up: event flyers!

Chapter leaders can access those documents through the Chapter Leaders Portal (login to your account and go to Groups to find it, or email Linda Norris-Waldt, Chapter Relations Director, for video instructions).

Members from states where there are not chapters yet who are interested in the bylaws template should contact Linda Norris-Waldt (lnorriswaldt@compostingcouncil.org) to receive a copy. The Chapter Advisory Committee, which meets monthly, is expected to finalize new Prospective Chapter Requirements to be approved by the USCC Board of Directors opening the "window” for 2021 new chapter applications.

USCC received numerous comments in November, adding value to the Model Zoning Template prepared by the Model Zoning Task Force. The Task Force is currently:

• Expanding definitions
• Adding clarifying language to the Small Sites category
• Expanding the depth of language for the On-Farm Zoning category
• Further streamlining and increasing the user-friendly frame and structure of the ordinance
• Adding a category for Consolidation sites to address zones where collected material is combined/depackaged/prepared for compost facility integration

The proposed ordinance will likely go out for an additional round of Stakeholder Comments, due to the format changes and additions.

The Task Force, made up of chair Marcus Zbinden (Carver County), members Neil Edgar (Edgar & Associates), Brian Freeman (Robinson & Cole), Jorge Montezuma (Atlas Organics); and Angel Arroyo-Rodriguez (Ohio EPA). It also recently added the expertise of Kourtnii Brown (Common Compost), an environmental policy analyst with experience in small, community-scale site regulations.

A coalition of partners, including USCC, collected data in Q4 2020 from a follow-up survey to our late-summer scan of the pandemic’s impact on campus composting and recycling programs.

The summer survey noted trends toward major reorganizations of collection operations shifts from reusables to single-use disposables and towards to-go dining operations. The follow-up survey sought to dig deeper into the trends to find long-term impacts. Busch Systems’ Alec Cooley put together the data received from the second survey in a fascinating blog post showing:

• self-service-based deskside collections or a hybrid of self-service and custodial service.
• a trend toward removing waste bins from classrooms and meeting rooms (an "all-in-the-hall” system).
• a troubling but not unexpected impact of reduction in operating budgets, in recycling staffs, and reduction in capital budgets for bins or other infrastructure.

"PPE and food packaging are particularly treacherous areas for the average person’s understanding of recyclability and compost-ability,” Cooley noted, as "a number of schools cited their increased usage as the cause of growing contamination rates.”

So far 131 institutions have responded to the survey, administered by partners Busch Systems, CURC, USCC, the Zero Waste Campus Council and the NRC Campus Council. It is open until January 22; the link can be found in the blog post.

Ryan Cerrato currently serves as the Vice President of Product Marketing for WeCare Denali, where he oversees all of the company’s product sales and marketing-related activities and manages a large portfolio of customers. Cerrato started with Denali as a director and was responsible for the development and execution of marketing plans, sales plans, and overall business development-related activities as it pertains to WeCare branded products, including WeCare Compost, WeCare Roofmix, and WeCare Engineered Soils. In addition to product marketing and sales, Cerrato oversees WeCare Denali's participation nationally in the US Composting Council STA Program.

"Why I pursued certification?”

"Approaching 10 years in the industry, I was excited to use what I've learned and helped others learn as a catalyst for this certification program. The USCC has done such a tremendous job putting this program together, and it really encompasses all facets of composting. Having this certification is a testament to the work I have put in, as well as all the work of everyone who has come before me. I look forward to watching the certification program see the same growth our industry has seen while working to further legitimize composters across the country and beyond.”

Will Kelley has worked for Napa Recycling & Waste Services (NRWS) for eight years and is responsible for managing all composting operations onsite, including but not limited to:

• supervising up to 15 compost operators and overseeing all composting equipment and machinery (stationary and mobile);
• managing incoming feedstock processing and blending, active composting and curing processes;
• ensuring safety during all operations and onsite environmental compliance with stormwater and odor, air and dust emissions; and
• overseeing final production of finished compost and sale of material to customers.

Kelley has contributed to numerous business development projects focused on innovative and sustainable solutions. In January 2020, Kelley completed NRWS’s transition from traditional windrow composting to an engineered covered aerated static pile (CASP) composting system thus decreasing air pollutants while increasing composting throughput. Other successes managed and implemented by Kelley include: 1) the modernization of the greenwaste processing line by converting diesel machinery to an all-electric fleet of screens, grinders, and equipment; 2) working with local businesses to capture and reuse wastewater for beneficial uses within the composting processes; and 3) installing a food depackager with funding from CalRecycle resulting in expansion of organics collected and processed onsite and reduction in wasted packaged foods. Currently, Kelley is managing the development for a regional CASP composting system in Yolo County, which would serve surrounding communities and increase Yolo County’s composting throughput by 100,000 tons.

"Why I pursued certification?”

"I received USCC certification for industry recognition and to challenge my current knowledge of composting operations management.”

The State of Iowa now has a newly formed chapter of the USCC to promote infrastructure building, as well as training to cope with increasing amounts of organics in the landfill. The Iowa Composting Council (IACC) is now an official USCC Chapter with support from the Iowa Recycling Association (IRA).

Alan Schumacher, President of the IRA, said, "It just makes sense. The IRA is here to promote recycling. Organics are the largest waste stream in Iowa. Of course, we should promote the recycling of organics through composting. It's a perfect fit."

The group, which is seeking Iowa members, will educate state regulators, local officials and the public about the importance of the compost manufacturing industry to local waste management programs, jobs and business development as well as the benefits of using compost in commercial and residential landscaping and farm fields. Educational outreach will also include the benefits of using compost for storm water management, erosion control and green infrastructure. The IACC, IRA and USCC will jointly take positions on regulations and legislation that affect the industry and the market for compost in the state.

"The USCC – and the compost industry – is most effective in states where a local and organized industry group is at the table,” said Frank Franciosi, executive director of the USCC. "Our chapters are important because their leadership is directly in touch with the members we work to serve.”

The Iowa Composting Council becomes the 13th regional chapter of the USCC after stakeholders in Iowa identified a need to provide training to compost operators, as well as education promoting compost benefits with the potential to grow current composting infrastructure in the state. Currently, the IRA is soliciting nominations for officers to serve on the IACC subcommittee.

For more information about the Iowa Composting Council, contact Jennifer Trent at jennifer.trent@uni.org.

2021 is officially here! To start off this new year, A1 Organics is proud to release our story. Please enjoy and share with everyone. We are very proud of being the organic waste solution for a more sustainable Colorado for the last 46 years and are committed to continue for many years to come. Thank you, Colorado!

We delivered prefabricated, modular anaerobic digestion systems to UC Davis (1,000 tons/yr) and UC San Diego (25 tons/yr) in the fall of 2020 to capture the embodied energy and nutrients from organic wastes for these universities. Our technology is unique in its sizing for campuses, resorts, and communities. Just one of our larger digesters has a CO2e Drawdown Rate of 900 tonnes/year. At this rate, each system actively reverses the carbon footprint of 200 cars. It further enables local regenerative carbon-negative food production. Our Alegría Farmacy indoor farming partnership can be deployed anywhere on any scale at any time.

These are meaningful and impactful ways to improve the quality of human life AND reverse the damage humans have done to the planet. The Rodale Institute recently reported "If regenerative agriculture were adopted globally the Drawdown Rate is greater than the current global Carbon Emissions” (55 drawdown vs. 37.5 current emissions: Gt/yr CO2e). 

Rarely does an opportunity come along that can touch on energy, water, air, soil, food, jobs, and education simultaneously. This one does. Impact Bioenergy has a seed round capital campaign in progress to execute a scale up and meet the demands of the 2021 pipeline of partnerships and projects. 

Starting January 1, the Composting Council Research & Education Foundation (CCREF) is known as the Compost Research & Education Foundation (CREF). The Foundation made this change for two reasons. The first is to make it easier for people to understand that CREF is its own organization and not part of the US Composting Council (USCC). Although the two groups work together often, CREF is its own nonprofit and is run by a dedicated Board of Trustees. The second reason is because CREF's work encompasses all aspects of compost, from the compost industry to home composting, it was felt moving from Composting Council in the name to just Compost was more expansive.

Andrew Carpenter from Northern Tilth has joined the Foundation’s board as a trustee. Carpenter is a certified soil scientist, certified crop adviser, and certified nutrient management planning specialist. He has extensive experience in research, planning and handling technical issues related to the reuse of organic residuals. He founded Northern Tilth, LLC, an environmental consulting firm focusing on organic waste management and building soil health, in 2003. Carpenter has worked with CREF in the past, most recently on the paper on air emissions. The CREF board is happy to have him join as one of the trustees; he will bring a great deal of experience and knowledge to his new role.