I am pleased to announce today that the USCC has released the Model Compost Rules Template 2.0. This well-vetted document is an important resource in building composting infrastructure, providing states with solid guidelines to incorporate as they update and renew their composting permitting rules and regulations. This along with the recent launch of the Model Zoning Template and the new Compost Manufacturing NAICS code will be a triple play in removing obstacles for composting infrastructure growth in the U.S.

 

Back in 2010, the USCC created the Model Compost Rule Template for states to adopt. It was designed in a two-year stakeholder process that was completed in 2012. In 2021, USCC staff compiled the state regulations survey data and developed a matrix to identify and group common threads throughout the survey responses.

A long-awaited initiative is coming to fruition from the US Composting Council and the Compost Research and Education Foundation -- Compost University will launch this month. Here are a few frequently asked questions about Compost U and responses from Cary Oshins, USCC Associate Director and CREF Education Director.

 

As I have worked with compost manufacturers and their allies within all levels of the compost and organics industry, in public, private and non-profit sectors, I have seen a need to build skills in order to manage their sites and facilities effectively. We wanted to develop a place where industry professionals could access high-quality, timely coursework on specific functions when and where they want it, on demand. Compost U will be the only place that has a curated collection of informational and educational resources closely related to specific functions and searchable by topic, at levels from introductory to advanced.

The USCC's Annual Conference and Tradeshow is the premiere professional meeting for composting, organics recycling, and related topics. All events are IN-PERSON ONLY. Submission Deadline: June 30, 2022

Neil Edgar, Senior Project Manager with Edgar & Associates of Sacramento, California, will fill the open affiliate seat for the US Composting Council Board of Directors after recent election by USCC members. Edgar will fill the seat of Tim Goodman of Natureworks, who retired from the industry this spring. Information about Edgar can be found here. He begins his term with the May meeting of the Board of Directors and will fill the remainder of the term until the end of 2024.

 

Thank you to candidates Thomas Bauer (Emerald Brands), Allison Forstmann (Repurpose Inc.) and Wayne Koeckeritz (Eco-Products) for running for the seat.

 

The next board election will be held in fall of 2022. See the full Board of Directors here.

The Target Organics Hub was originally conceived to assist municipalities in adding food scrap composting to their suite of organics recycling and zero waste strategies.

 

With the launch of the site last year and requests for more and varied material, the Target Organics Committee (see who's on it here) is broadening its view and considering adding new resources and "target" audiences to the Hub. To accommodate that, the committee spent the first quarter of 2022, at the request of the USCC Board of Directors, focusing on whether the simple name "Target Organic Hub" really told the story of what is available, both now and in future additions.

 

The new name: Target Organics: A Compost Programs Resource Hub!!

 

This name will be a more effective umbrella for assembling resources and expertise for programs beyond the city or county – the group is considering institutions, haulers and other target audiences.

 

 

The compost industry has long been perplexed at the lack of inclusion of compost use on farms for soil health – similar to sustainable agriculture practices such as crop rotation and no-till farming which receive federal incentive payments. We would like to alert our members that an opportunity to support changing this situation is on the horizon.

 

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), part of the US Department of Agriculture, will be posting a comment period in the Federal Register this spring for comment on Rule 336 (see draft here). This is an evolution of Interim Practice 808, which has been in place for several years in California and Colorado, and was adopted in the past year by an additional 18 states (CT, DC, DE, HI, ID, IL, IN, MA, MD, MI, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY OR, UT and VT).

 

The standard allows farmers to apply for reimbursement under the EQIP program for use of compost for carbon sequestration. The 47 practices are aimed at addressing issues such as soil health-aggregation ability, soil degradation.

Stay tuned! USCC will be deploying our new Grassroots Action Center for comments in support of this practice.

Between December 2014 and June 2015, mortality composting was used successfully in a wave of avian flu which spread across the United States. More than 50 million chickens and turkeys died of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). These birds accounted for about 12 percent of the U.S. table-egg laying population and 8 percent of the estimated inventory of turkeys grown for meat (USDA).

 

Evidence of this flu emerged again in late January 2022, and the virus continues with 22.8M birds who have died or been destroyed to stop the spread of the flu.

 

Mortality Composting is a safe disposal method for chicken carcasses when proper procedures are followed.

 

The USCC has collected resources and identified specialists among our membership who are expert on these topics. The experts tell us that full-time farm operations with poultry are well aware of the issues and the composting options, but hobby and backyard chicken hosts are not; please forward this information if you know someone who may need it

 

Note: Animal mortalities will be the topic at the Triennial Symposium on Animal Healthy Mortality and Management, June 26-30, 2022, Raleigh, NC, which is also virtual: Registration here.

Three USCC state chapters that have added state membership programs in the past year presented a roundup of how and why they developed their memberships and fee structure at the second quarter All-USCC Chapters call in April.

 

Wayne Koeckeritz of the Tennessee Composting Council (TNCC) (membership info here), David Fridland and Monique DiGiorgio of the Colorado Composting Council (COCC) (membership info here) and Jenny Trent of the Iowa Composting Council (IACC) (membership info here) all discussed their membership models. All have planned or are planning membership drives for their states.

 

Chapters have separate state membership models from USCC; though people in their state can join USCC to get USCC benefits, it does not convey “dual” membership in both the chapter and national organizations. Several chapters do not yet charge any state-level dues, and USCC is hoping to pilot a single-level dual membership program with one of these states in 2022.

 

Of USCC’s total membership, 52 percent is from a chapter state! Visit https://www.compostingcouncil.org/page/StateChapters to see all of our chapter states.

 

If interested or if you have any other questions about chapters, contact Linda Norris-Waldt.

A Corporate Compost Leadership (CCLC) member has donated a national survey to the USCC. Clif Bar & Company geniously donated a survey to the USCC to support the industry. The USCC then commissioned this survey to be conducted by Morning Consult. The questions were developed by staff and focused on general attitudes and access to compost nationwide. 

 

The main objectives of this survey are: 1) to understand consumer awareness, habits, and accessibility around composting; 2) to understand what drives consumers to compost; and, 3) to understand what deters consumers from composting and what interests those individuals.

 

The survey was conducted in the beginning of April 2022. The 2,000 participants were compensated for their time. The makeup of the respondents was designed to be a representative sample of the population of the United States. Where the demographics differed from the population, weighted adjustments were made. 

 

The results of this survey are highly detailed and represent a substantial investment from Clif Bar.  As such, this resource is being released to USCC members only. Sharing or re-distribution of this content is strictly forbidden. 

Thank you for your continued support of the US Composting Council. USCC membership expires July 1!  We want to be sure you don’t lose any of the benefits that can help your success and the expansion of our industry. 

 

The US Composting Council is committed to moving the industry forward on all of the fronts below.

 

ADVOCACY: This past year has seen unprecedented expansion of our Advocacy efforts. With the Legislative and Environmental Affairs Committee (LEAC) and Linda Norris-Waldt engaged with federal and state efforts, we have seen progress on the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act designed to increase data collection reporting for our industry. The USCC now has a group of highly engaged Advocate members who compete for prizes and beat the compost drum in their regions. In the coming months the USCC will implement a new grassroots advocacy software, Capitol Canary, to further engage with compost advocates nationwide.  

The USCC's Young Professionals Scholarship Program begins July 1, 2022.

We are excited to offer USCC Young Professional Scholarships to 5 individuals this year. Those who apply and receive a scholarship will receive a one-year individual membership to USCC (valued at $170) in return for serving on one of the Young Professional committees. You will be responsible for pledging at least 12 hours from July 2022 to June 2023 to your selected committee. These committees are directly responsible for furthering the young professional network and community in the composting industry.

May 1st kicked off International Compost Awareness Week and was also the launch of South Dakota's first community composting nonprofit organization—SoDak Compost. SoDak Compost, is a nonprofit organization founded by Deirdre Appel in Sioux Falls, to strengthen the community's connection to the problem of food waste, the potential of food scraps, and the promise of compost. In partnership with a local urban garden, IronFox Farms, SoDak Compost will be running a pilot starting in early June that will collect household food scraps via a weekly drop-off system and turn them into compost.

 

Deride arrived in Sioux Falls in July 2021 from Brooklyn, New York. Since moving to South Dakota, she became a community gardener, works part-time at Cherry Rock Farms and is a member of the Sioux Falls Food Co-Op and Dakota Rural Action. Despite a growing interest in food systems and sustainability, she quickly learned her limitations. As an apartment resident, there is no option to recycle food scraps or compost. The absence led her to creating her own solution – SoDak Compost.

Deirdre’s professional background is in public policy and nonprofit management. She received her Master of Global Policy Studies from the LBJ School at University of Texas at Austin in 2016 and currently works as a Communications Adviser for international development organizations. Deirdre competed in this year's Emerging Composter Competition at the U.S Composting Council Conference in Austin, Texas.

To know more about SODak Compost please visit SoDak Compost or contact info@sodakcompost.org.

Landfills across the country are experiencing a trend ─ black goo, pluggage, and scaling in their leachate and gas collection systems. These organic and inorganic deposits are difficult to treat once they've seeped into liquid and GCCS systems, clogging equipment and pipes, impacting the extraction of liquids and landfill gas.

 

Our panelists this month discuss best practices for identifying, treating, and possibly even preventing these chemical deposits before and after they occur within your infrastructure. We'll also include what landfill field operations can do to identify and treat conditions that appear symptomatic of possible future issues.

 

No one has all the answers ─ each site's conditions are unique. Our team of engineers, scientists, and landfill-landfill gas operations experts will provide a comprehensive discussion in May of what we are seeing and piloting in the field.

 

 

We wanted to let all our members in EPA Region 3 states know that the EPA recently released a new RFA for this region.

 

Here’s what the EPA is looking for:

 

The EPA is “soliciting applications designed to address the growing food waste problem; there is not an adequate amount of organics recycling and composting infrastructure in Region 3 to meet the United States’ Food Loss and Waste Reduction Goal. Proposals must directly benefit at least one of the EPA Region 3 States of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia and the District of Columbia (DC). Applications must address at least one of the following objectives: 1. Initiate or facilitate the development of new food waste composting capacity; and/or 2. Enhance or increase the capacity to collect and/or process food waste at existing composting facilities. Limitations on funding opportunity for FY22: Projects must support sustainable management of food.”

The RFA is due June 3. You can read the whole RFA which is attached.

By: Jennifer Hijazi & Stephen Lee

The Department of Justice announced a trio of major environmental justice actions on Thursday, including the launch of a new office and the resurrection of a popular enforcement tool scrapped during the Trump administration.

 

A “comprehensive environmental justice enforcement strategy” was issued alongside the Justice Department’s first-ever Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ), Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference.