The promise of compost
by Keith Barker, Editor, Recycling Product News
Our mid-summer issue is always one I look forward to every year. It’s the time of year that we collaborate with our friends at the Compost Council of Canada, and particularly the organization’s Director Susan Antler, to produce our “Composting Across Canada” feature. This year, the Compost Council of Canada celebrates 20 years as an organization, and they’ve provided us with a short precursor to their upcoming conference along with a brief look at some of the outstanding individuals, municipalities and companies who are making things happen in the industry as of late.
But first, some troubling news on the composting front. As of July 1st compost has officially been designated as a product under the Municipal Hazardous and Special Waste (MHSW) program in Ontario. Specifically, products implicated in the MHSW initiative include bagged compost products made from animal manure and compost products with labels which talk about compost’s value as a growing medium.
What this means for the industry is basically that it makes things more difficult and less profitable for producers. For the consumer, according to industry sources, “...he/she will likely need to pay an eco-fee of about 13 cents/bag of compost to pay for the Municipal Hazardous and Special Waste collection program in Ontario.”
It seems obvious that compost should not be part of a program whose primary purpose “is to divert hazardous household wastes from landfills or sewers.” Compost is not hazardous. It is a beneficial and natural recycled product. Still, as of July in Ontario “it is what it is” when it comes to compost. For the most part in North America however, significant advancements are being made in the composting industry. Companies, such as Envirem Organics and Harvest Power are growing rapidly (see pages 8-9 this issue), diversion is increasing and facilities are flourishing. Indeed, one report issued earlier this year by the U.S. Center for a Competitive Waste Industry points to the composting of food scraps and soiled paper as the “next generation of recycling.”
The report; “Beyond Recycling: Composting Food Scraps and Soiled Paper” was prepared with the assistance of Gary Liss & Associates and Steve Sherman (formerly with Environmental Science Associates) and provides recycle program managers with a guidebook of best practices for expanding beyond recycling, and composters with advice on how to process food scraps. One hundred and twenty-one cities in Canada and the U.S. who were contacted in the study were found to have already embarked on their expansion into composting. And the chief reasons communities reported on why they chose to begin and continue to compost source-separated organics — they saw major reductions in GHGs, significant reductions in pollution of groundwater, and increases in overall diversion rates. Show me another “hazardous waste” that can do all that.
Copies of the report are available at http://beyondrecycling.org.