The official schedule for COMPOST2023 has been released. This year's lineup is packed with expert speakers, presenting on five tracks including a California “SB 1383” track, Operations, Policy, Diversion and Collection tracks. The upcoming 31st annual conference will feature seven workshops, five facility tours, two full days of exhibit hall tradeshow and educational sessions, and the world's LARGEST live equipment demonstration day (Demo Day). 

PFAS and derivative chemicals are now and will continue to be areas of concern for compost manufacturing and many other industries. Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl substances (known variously as PFAS, PFOS and PFOAS) are man-made fluorinated compounds that have been put into consumer products since the 1940s because of their stain- and grease-repelling properties. Two of the chemicals, PFOS and PFOAS, have been phased out in the U.S. due to EPA rulings in 2002 and 2015 that restrict their manufacture. The US Composting Council and our chapters are carefully monitoring regulations about PFAS in compost, which only exist now in a few states. This page will be updated every quarter to reflect new developments.

 

Learn more about PFAS and compost at our resource hub at https://www.compostingcouncil.org/page/PFAS-and-compost.

The HUB puts credible information on composting, vetted by independent leaders in composting, from top resources in the U.S. in one location. Please click here to view all of the topics. If you are planning to launch a new facility in the next few years, now is the time to get your ducks in a row. 

 

Target Organics: A Compost Programs Resource Hub has you covered. Learn about: 

 

1) Permitting
2) Site Planning
3) Case Studies

 

By providing the tools and success stories, composters and communities can use this hub to plan, attract, open, successfully run compost facilities, and market the compost that is produced. After all, compost is an essential ingredient to healthy soil. Our mission is to empower the foundation of life on the Earth, healthy soil! By spreading awareness and know-how, communities can start reducing landfill waste and methane emissions, starting here!

If you want to find out how to get involved in your local chapter (find them here), you can do that in person at COMPOST2023!

 

On Thursday, January 26, every chapter will have a display and chapter leaders there to talk to you about what they are doing these days.

 

Stop by from 1-1:45 p.m. at the Convention Center for a snack and a visit with your state team!

This short article will help guide any Master account holder on how to find their sub accounts, know how many they have, and update them.
 
To start, what is a USCC master account and how is that different from a sub account?
 
In our system each organization has what is called the “master account holder.” This person is the one who receives important communications from us, including renewal invoices. They are considered the main contact for the USCC, and is the contact who will receive your renewal bill each year, which is a key thing to keep in mind when deciding who is the best person to have listed in that position. 
 
Membership levels Bronze or above can have one or more additional people on your account or “sub accounts” as they are called in the system. These people are coworkers who need to have access to all membership items for education, as well as communication purposes, they are also the folks who can also receive the member discount on our various programs and events.
 
How do I find the sub accounts for my company?

Register...

The Young Professionals had the pleasure of co-hosting the November Happy Hour with Kimberly Cook, Agromins' Northern California Business Development Manager. The theme of the discussion centered around California's state law SB 1383, Short-Lived Climate Pollutants.

 

Attendees learned about the impacts of SB 1383 on California's compost markets, and the collaborative efforts between organizations like Agromin and state jurisdictions to meet procurement requirements and emerging challenges. 

 

The YP Outreach committee is happy to feature our guests and partners as we highlight interesting topics that directly impact our network and community. Thank you for joining us!

The Young Professionals Group now has its own Slack channel! Our committee leads will be using the Slack channel to share updates, events, and ideas.
We hope that Slack will help us to communicate with one another more easily and we invite you to join in on the conversation by clicking here!

Veransa Group, Inc, a zero-waste leader in transforming green & wood waste into beneficial re-use products on an industrial scale through vertical integration of waste collection/recycling centers with organic products manufacturing facilities, announced the acquisition of MW Horticulture (“MW”) as it continues a period of significant growth.

 

The deal, which formally closed on October 19, 2022, includes MW’s green and wood waste collections, recycling, and organics production facility in Fort Myers, FL with an option to acquire MW Horticulture’s LaBelle, FL facility. The acquisition integrates MW’s extensive range of specialized organic blended-soil products into Veransa’s product portfolio and extends Veransa’s geographic reach into the rapidly growing South Florida market.

 

The Fort Myers facility will be modernized under Veransa’s management and strict safety and operational procedures and fall under a new South Florida division of the Veransa Group, led by the General Manager of Veransa South Florida. The acquisition will extend Veransa’s processes for ensuring the safest and most efficient high-volume processing of yard & wood waste, and production of high-quality organic products.

In October 2022, Rotochopper hosted customers and prospects at a regional Field Day event in Spokane, Washington. The event provided a great day for the more than 70 attendees, as they were able to see seven different pieces of Rotochopper equipment in action. The event was held by the West Coast Sales Team at Rotochopper customer, and gracious host, Barr-Tech Composting.

 

The day began with introductions, an overview of the day, and some Rotochopper history from Nick Korn, West Coast Regional Sales Manager and Tosh Brinkerhoff, Rotochopper President and CEO. The opening comments were quickly followed by the first demo of the day, a B-66 Horizontal Grinder grinding green waste and feeding directly into Rotochopper’s 365R Tracked Radial Stacking Conveyor.

 

The morning proceeded with demonstrations of Rotochopper’s exclusive screen change system on the B-66 Horizontal Grinder, the 75DK slow speed shredder, and the Go-Bagger® 250. Attendees were engaged and impressed with each of these demos and provided great insight, questions, and conversations around the equipment and the use cases that would fit their own operations. 

You are responsible for ensuring the safe, clean, consistent, and reliable running of all Onsite Operations activities in the Raleigh market (emptying, sorting, and cleaning of containers; preparing finished compost for delivery; receiving, order pulling, and inventory tracking of compostable products; facility management). You will be supervising and supporting a team (of approx. 12) operating Monday-Saturday 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Your expected working hours are 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday, and are expected to flex around before/after hours issues that may arise. You are the first to assist in the execution of Onsite Operational needs and the completion of administrative tasks necessary for the continued successful operation of CompostNow’s Onsite division. 

After over five years on the staff of the Compost Research & Education Foundation (CREF), Wayne Howard is stepping out of his role as Program Manager for the Foundation. In 2017, Wayne joined the CREF, formerly CCREF, with a primary focus on expanding the Compost Operator Training Courses (COTCs), creating webinars and training videos, and expanding online offerings. During his tenure, the Foundation has offered around 25 in person trainings across the country educating over 1,000individuals with the COTC curriculum. CREF has hosted half a dozen webinars and online educational trainings targeting composters and researchers alike. In the past two years, the Foundation and USCC have launched the online learning management platform COMPOSTU which Wayne had a hand in creating.

Wayne will be moving on to work for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, a post similar to his now second most recent position as a Review Engineer, NC DEQ - Division of Water Resources that he held for 14 years.

Wayne brought more than just a wealth of knowledge related to waste treatment, water resources, and multimedia production to CREF. His pleasant demeanor, ability to talk to absolutely anyone, and his love of movies, cosplay and pop culture made him the life of any gathering. We at CREF and USCC wish Wayne well on his next venture.

On December 14 at 2 p.m. (EST), CREF will be holding a webinar titled Addressing Contamination in Food Waste for Composting. Clinton Sander from A1 Organics in Colorado and Kate Kurtz and Becca Fong from the City of Seattle will present on the work they have been doing to address this increasing problem so many are facing. This webinar will focus on sharing suggestions of different ideas to try to work towards decreasing food waste contamination. To register for this event, click here.

 

The cost is $19 to USCC Members/$29 Non-Members.