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' News anb'd'e&lbljnients frob the iihriua =onfe~ente of the U.S. Cornposting Council .

COMPOSTING INDUSTRY UPDATE -

hurdles and opport~nities by Ken McEntee . . .

posed to do with the stuff?" Summy said the lawsuit intends

to put the burden of responsibility back on Dow, but the reality is that the effect of clopyralid on the pub- lic's perception of compost might be even more serious for the indus- try than the legal liability.

Everybody is not convinced, however, that clopyralid is going to kill the composting indushy.

According to Dan Caldwell, of Washington State University (Pull- man), the more control one has over feedstock, the less likely clopyralid will present a problem. WSU, after

Compost operators continue -to be concerned about

dopyralid contamination and pduc t certification.

detecting clopyralid in compost pro- - duced at its facilities, has cleaned up its product to where it poses no risk of plant damage.

"Over a two- to three-year peri- od, we lost $330,000 because of clopyralid contamination," Caldwell

I said. "That would have wiped out a 1 private composter. But Washington

i State stepped up to the plate and sup- ported us for various reasons. The

! product was in very big demand before this hit. Now three of our largest clients have said let's get back in business."

Caldwell said WSU has control over its feedstock, making it easier to prevent clopyr- alid from getting into its system. But some composters - those that take yard trimmings, for example - will have a more difficult time controlling their feedstock. Those facilities need to do the legwork to find out where their feedstock is coming from and what's in it in order to reduce the chance of contamination. "Even with control over our feedstock, it took us a couple years to get it under control," Cald- well said, noting that research has shown clopyralid levels of 25 to 50 parts per billion to be safe levels for tested plants.

David Bezdicek, also of WSU, said, how- ever, that some plants have shown adverse symptoms with clopyralid levels as low as one part per billion, or the equivalent of six people in the world's population.

Organic grower Art Biggart, of Ocean Sky Fasm (Bainbridge Island, Washington), said clopyralid is a perfect product for Dow. "If I was Dow, I would love clopyralid because it is not toxic and it works very well on broadleaf weeds," he said. "If organic agriculture is damaged, it is good for chemical agriculture, and those are the people that buy clopyralid. It helps theis customers and hurts the people who don't buy Dow products."

Reader service # 76 ~esource Recycling April 2003

opportunities for compost. The council is continuing to work with regulators, such as the Association of American Plant Food Control Officials (Lexington, en tuck^), to craft laws and regulations that will build, rather than harm,markets for compost. The council also is pushing to build alliances with groups of large consumers, like landscape architects, to promote com- post products.

Some in the industry have long called for the development of national standards for compost. Others say it would be virtually impossible to get a national consensus on stan- dards. USCC sees its STA program as a first step toward eventually creating standards. Producers who participate in the STA pro- gram agree to test their products using approved laboratories and to report the test-

ing data to its customers. Participants then can use the STA logo to market their prod- ucts. Under the program, the compost does- n't have to meet any numerical standards.

A1 Rattie, who manages the program along with Ron Alexander, said the program has 70 participants and growing.

Recently, the Texas Department of Trans- portation (Austin) adopted specifications that require STA certification for compost used in highway products. Georgia's transportation department also has a provision for STA cer- tification in its specs, while Massachusetts requires that compost be certified by an "approved program."

Rattie said the council's goal in 2003 is to get more state specifiers to incorporate an STA requirement into their specifications.. He sees Texas as a model that other states can adopt without much work.

That goal does not sit well with everybody. That includes the Organics Committee of RecycleFlorida Today (Tallahassee), the state's recycling association, which says the program would interfere with the work it already has

should be one national compost testing program.

Compost regulations USCC continues to work with AAPFCO on issues of compost regulation. AAPFCO cre- ates model legislation with the aim of uni- formity among states. State regulators are not obligated to adopt AAPFCO models, but they typically do.

Currently, all states have legislation that regulates fertilizer, and 30 states regulate soil amendments. Noting that compost does not fit perfectly into either of those categories, USCC in 2000 presented a draft compost bill

to AAPFCO. The bill would allow compost products to carry soil amendment claims, as well as allow reporting of nutrient content, without falling under fertilizer laws.

About a year ago, USCC agreed to drop the compost bill in favor of working with the Mulch and Soil Council (Manassas, Vir- ginia) to amend AAPFCO's soil amendment bill to allow for some nutrient claims. More recently, however, the strategy changed again after an AAPFCO member advised Alexander that it would be virtually impos- sible to change the soil amendment bill. Instead, the council now is looking to amend regulatory language in the AAPFCO fertil-

done to promote organics to Florida's ~ e ~ a s t - ment of Transoortation (also of Tallahassee). I Jeff Rogers, of ~ynagrb Technologies 1nc. I oustin in), said fiodicers in ~ l o r i d a don't want the state's highway department to adopt an STA specification. "Ninety percent of what is produced in Florida is not mature compost," he noted. "It is mostly green waste fines, and we have spent a lot of time and money pro- moting the product to the Florida DO? i t is perfectly good for that use. We don't need an outside source to come in with national stan- dards after all of the work we put in." Rogers added that if the Florida DOT specified STA compost for highway projects, there would not be enough compost available for the proj- ects. He said the whole state produces about 150,000 to 200,000 cubic yards per year of mature compost.

The council has shown little tolerance for whwhi-netltlon A new certifi- .-.- . - -.

cation logo created by OG magazine, pub- lished by Rodale Press (Emmaus, Pennsyl- vania), has been targeted.

During a meeting of the council's Market Development Committee, Rattie was asked about the effects of similar private efforts to create alternative standards. "Very minimal," Rattie said. "I had one producer go over to an alternative labeling program."

Will Brinton, of Woods End Research Laboratories (Mt. Vernon, Maine), the lab that handles testing for the OG Compost Seal of Approval, said a second STA participant has fist joined the OG program.

Unlike the STA program, the OG program certifies products appropriate for specific end uses based on a series of quality standards. Brinton opined in the January 2003 issue of Conzposting News that competition among a variety of labeling programs would benefit the industry. USCC, however, believes there

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Reader service # 74

izer bill to make compost more easily reg- istered or regulated.

Opponents don't want to have to pay fer- tilizer fees for compost products. But Alexan- der thinks that states eventually are going to get around to regulating compost, so it is bet- ter to be proactive to make regulation as pain- less as possible. "A lot of states are asking why we are dancing in the middle between soil amendments and fertilizer," Alexander said. "It's just a matter of time before they lower the boom. If the states all come up with their own regulations, we'll have 50 dif- ferent rules - and that is bad for marketing compost."

Bob LaGasse, executive director of MSC,

said he has just heard about the change in strategy against trying to alter the soil amendment bill. He doesn't agree that the soil amendment bill can't be changed. "Of course AAPFCO is going to tell you that it can't be done," he said. "That doesn't mean that it can't be done. That's what they told us about the growing media regulations. It's a slow process, and it takes a lot of work."

MSC recently worked with AAPFCO to create a model growing media bill that has been adopted by four states. The trade group that represents bark, mulch and soil produc- ers, has the financial resources to push a bill through AAPFCO; USCC doesn't, said Alexander. RR

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