Organics

The Composting Collaborative launches

GreenBlue, based in Charlottesville, Virginia, in partnership with the U.S. Composting Council, Reston, Virginia, and BioCycle magazine, Emmaus, Pennsylvania, has launched The Composting Collaborative in an effort to foster sustainable materials management of food scraps and other organics.

Launched Nov. 17, 2016, in Washington, the new organization seeks to accelerate the development of composting access and infrastructure that diverts food scraps and other organics from disposal, resulting in value-added products to improve soil health.

The collaborative brings together composters, consumer-facing businesses and policymakers, among other stakeholders, to share best practices and resources as well as to generate innovative solutions to shared challenge, according to The Composting Collaborative’s website, www.compostingcollaborative.org.

The Composting Collaborative says its imperatives include:

• accelerating composting infrastructure and landfill diversion in the United States;
• coordinating national composting initiatives across the composting value chain;
• supporting the competitiveness and long-term viability of compost manufacturing;
• determining gaps and prioritize initiatives in the composting space; and
• educating diverse audiences on the environmental benefits and resilient infrastructure compost manufacturing provides.

The organization has identified four strategic areas of focus: policy, markets, technical and social. Policy includes state and local level regulations, incentives and practices. Markets include compost operator ability to operate and sell value-added products. Technical focuses on effective composter operations and compost processing standards, and social includes overall education on the value of compost and the compost manufacturing process as well as compost education.