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 From the Top of the Pile
By: Frank Franciosi
In a recent LinkedIn post, Pierce Louis, USCC Board President, announced the reacquisition of Dirt Hugger LLC. Pierce Louis and Tyler Miller, co-founders of Dirt Hugger, have reacquired their company 14 months after selling it to Atlas Organics and Generate Upcycle. This unexpected turn of events comes after a year of learning and growth for the duo, who had the opportunity to observe and gain insights from the larger organization.
Their reacquisition plan had been in the works since June 2023 and came together quickly after Generate Upcycle floated the idea to Pierce and Tyler. Essentially, Generate Upcycle was consolidating operations, and Pierce and Tyler were the first on the list of potential buyers for Dirt Hugger.
USCC NEWS
A big thank you to all our current STA participants in getting the renewals done on time. To download your STA certificate, please follow these steps:
We were so thrilled to see the response from the compost community last month when we launched our new online merchandise store. We are happy to introduce our online store for t-shirts, hoodies, hats, mugs, and awesome merchandise that lets you show off your love for composting and the USCC in style!
Explore the store at compostingcouncil.myshopify.com and browse the awesome collection of t-shirts, hoodies, and more.
#Compost
ADVOCACY AND PUBLIC POLICY BRIEFS
Numerous state and federal bills, like the one that passed in Minnesota and California this year, have banned PFAS that are intentionally added into consumer products, ranging from ski wax to cosmetics to clothing, upholstery and rugs, food packaging like popcorn bags, fast-food and even baking mix bags.
Stopping perfluoroalkyl chemicals at their source is the clearest, cleanest way to keep these chemicals from entering our water, air, soil, wastewater, compost, and our own bloodstreams.
USCC has supported many consumer PFAS bans and will continue to do so.
The more people who join us in this effort, the more impact we will have.
The Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Practices, created in the 2018 Farm Bill, is at risk of being unfunded in this year’s federal appropriations office, and putting in jeopardy programs like the Composting and Food Waste Reduction Grants ($12 million invested since 2020) and Urban Agriculture Innovation Grants.
Please send a note HERE to your representative to restore appropriations funding to the Office of Urban Agriculture through the appropriations process for FY '24. We are asking for maintenance or increase in funding in the Farm Bill to ensure the programs remain in place in future years.
Click below to go to our Compost Action Center and to directly support these grant programs.
Rep. McMorris Rodgers listened with an open mind to the compost industry's wish to be exempt from liability under EPA's proposal to use the Superfund law (CERCLA) to clean up PFAS.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
COMPOST USE Forward by USCC Staff.
On July 18, 2023, the USCC hosted a webinar titled: Meeting the California Market Demand for Medium/Coarse Grade Compost Products. Our webinar featured speakers, Ron Alexander – R. Alexander Associates, Inc. as well as Ken Murray and Scott Dowlan – both landscape architects with Caltrans. The purpose of our webinar was to discuss some best practices in producing medium/coarse compost and to present the unique and in-demand market opportunities for medium/coarse compost products. One such product and market opportunity is composted mulch. An August BioCycle CONNECT article by Ron Alexander reprinted here with permission from BioCycle, takes a deep dive in to composted mulch, its benefits, and its wide-ranging potential in combatting the environmental impacts of climate change.
By Ron Alexander
Mulching is a well-documented horticultural and agricultural practice. It provides a variety of benefits including improved moisture conservation, reduced soil erosion, weed suppression, and lowering soil temperatures. When using carbon-based mulches versus materials like stones and chipped tires, it also provides organic matter and plant nutrients to the soil, as well as carbon to feed microbes and other creatures living in the soil. In landscaping and home gardening, mulches are also used for aesthetics purposes. However, with the climate changing, creating more droughts and intense rainstorms, mulching will be seen as an even more important tool in soil and plant management, food production, etc.
Over the past 45 years, commercial composts have become staples of the landscaping and gardening industries, supplying them with high quality and inexpensive soil amendments. Their use has expanded in both agricultural production and erosion control and storm water management. However, certain medium or coarsely screened composts, as well as ‘clean’ screened compost ‘overs’ generated through the composting of yard trimmings and biosolids, have also been used as decorative and horticultural mulches in both landscaping and agricultural production.
While the overall appearance of a composted mulch is probably the greatest driver regarding its acceptability in landscaping, its ability to feed the soil and the plants grown within it should not be overlooked. Popular composted landscape mulches possess a consistent appearance, are dark in color, and have a lower C:N ratio. Of course, there are exceptions, as some customers will use products that are lighter in color (less composted or aged). Most composted mulches contain a mixture of coarse, medium, and fine particles — ranging in size from 0.5 to 2 inches — which is no doubt key to their efficaciousness in a variety of applications. While the content of thoroughly composted particles can increase the mulches bulk density when compared to dyed wood or fresh bark mulches, it also helps them hold more water, reduce migration (especially when there is a stringy component), provides stabilized organic matter, and feeds the plants. For agricultural applications, the horticultural benefits that a composted mulch can provide are more important than its appearance, as are its overall cost.
STATE CHAPTER NEWS
Our Annual Organics Waste Management Summit is at Rutgers University at the EcoComplex on October 18th. This full day event will highlight composting and food waste recycling as the “New Frontier of Recycling” with the opportunity to learn, ask questions from experts and regulators, and network. Stay tuned as our full and final lineup will be announced very shortly, but you can view our preliminary schedule and take advantage of our early bird discount now!
 TNCC will hold its first ever organics recycling-only conference in Nashville, TN, on Nov. 8. (Recently they’ve had SRO at their sessions at the Tennessee Recycling Conference). Stay tuned for more.
WHEN: Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
WHERE: Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee; 3421 Belmont Blvd. Nashville, TN 37215 COST: $50 per person
MEMBER NEWS
Komptech Americas, the master distributor of Komptech industrial waste processing equipment in North America, announced today that it is rebranding as Viably effective Sept. 5, 2023. This strategic move reflects the company’s commitment to providing and supporting the most forward-thinking equipment solutions within the waste and recycling industry.
Viably will continue the company’s longstanding and valued partnership with Komptech GmbH while expanding its product portfolio with new brands and cutting-edge technologies. The Viably product portfolio currently includes the Turbo Separator line of food waste depackagers and GypStream drywall recycling systems manufactured by Scott Equipment Company, Harp Renewables’ line of biodigesters, and a lineup of MGL stacking conveyors.
RFPS AND PROPOSALS
The purpose of this grant program is to help local governments, non-profits, and businesses reduce the amount of wasted food being disposed of in landfills. The Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service (DEACS) administers the Food Waste Reduction (FWR) Grant through the Solid Waste Management Outreach Program.
OPPORTUNITIES, JOBS AND GRANTS
The US Composting Council is seeking a creative, energetic, and entrepreneurial marketing professional to manage marketing tactics for USCC’s programs and products. They will contribute broadly to all aspects of the fulfillment of USCC’s mission and vision through marketing of revenue-generating programs of the US Composting Council.
This position executes priorities set in the overall strategic marketing plan, focusing on the products and programs under USCC's banner. The successful candidate will work with the Marketing & Communications Manager to implement the tactics to carry out the USCC’s organization-wide marketing plan, as well as partner with program staff to understand and advise on tactics to carry out the marketing goals of programs and committees.
CREF NEWS
CREF’s CFTP project had some good news recently. This program is a research platform with the purpose of working with composters to do field testing of compostable products for anonymized data collection. We recently heard that the 11th Hour Project is funding the CFTP for a third year, allowing for a greater depth of research on this topic. The continued support of the 11th Hour Project is appreciated by everyone involved with the CFTP.
Also, the CREF staff person for this project, Jamie Blanchard -Poling, recently received not one but two awards. She is also the founder of Compost Queen in Northern Colorado. For her work with Compost Queen, Jamie won runner up in the Ladies Who Launch business bootcamp pitch competition, and she is one of the 40 Under 40 honorees for Northern Colorado in 2023 through Biz West. Congratulations, Jamie, for being recognized for all your work.  Both the ICAW 2024 Poster Contest and the ICAW 2024 Video Contest have started. Entries are already coming in. The deadline to apply to either contest is Nov. 1. The video contest is only open to children and teens ages 10–13. The poster contest is for anyone 14 years old and up.
IN THE HEADLINESBy: Jacob Fenston, DCist
After years of studying and discussing the idea of launching a curbside composting program, D.C. officials finally began rolling out a pilot program this month. Roughly 9,000 households will be participating — they’ll get food scraps picked up once a week and a bag of finished compost at the end of the program. The pilot program was initially supposed to start in the spring. DPW began enrolling residents in April and sent welcome packets to households that were selected in June. In late July, DPW officials told households they were aiming to launch the program by late August. At the end of last month, DPW announced the program would launch on a rolling basis, ward by ward, reaching all participants by the end of September. Upcoming Events
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The COMPOST2024 Trade Show is almost sold out and at 75% capacity. COMPOST2024 will allow you to market to 900+ member organizations and potential customers representing more than 2,100 individuals. You will have the opportunity to engage with the 900+ daily visitors to the trade show. If you are interested in exhibiting at COMPOST2024, now is the time to sign up for a booth as they are selling out quickly. 
USCC members continued to advocate for the compost industry this summer. Member (and former board member) Jeffrey Dannis met with staff of Sen. Thomas Carper of Delaware, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Ted Condon and Scott Deatherage of Barr-Tech met with Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in her district office and were joined virtually by USCC staff.
Khalfan Al Amri has worked in composting industry since 2015 as a composting plant supervisor in the only plant that is dealing with biosolids in Oman.
