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 others, 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 imperatives include:
- Accelerate composting infrastructure and landfill diversion in the United States.
- Coordinate national composting initiatives across the composting value chain.
- Support the competitiveness and long-term viability of compost manufacturing.
- Determine gaps and prioritize initiatives in the composting space.
- Educate diverse audiences on the environmental benefits and resilient infrastructure compost manufacturing provides.
Athena Lee Bradley, of the Northeast Recycling Council (NERC), Brattleboro, Vermont, attended The Composting Collaborative’s “Inaugural Dialogue” Nov. 17, where she says a diversity of compost leaders from around the country were gathered together for the meeting. Discussions included evaluation of opportunities and identifying key leverage points to drive composting innovation; setting priorities for project action; and a preview of the collaborative’ s website—designed to be a web-based platform for showcasing projects and initiatives across the country and for the cross-promotion of resources.
The organization has identified four strategic areas of focus:
- Policy, which includes state and local level regulations, incentives, and practices;
- Markets, including compost operator ability to operate and sell product, including value-added products;
- Technical, focusing on effective composter operations, and compost processing standards; and
- Social, including overall education on the value of compost and the compost manufacturing process, as well as compost education.
At The Composting Collaborative’s next meeting, which is planned during Compost2017, Jan. 23-25 in Los Angeles, the group will discuss building upon the identified strategic areas of focus.
More information is available by contacting NERC’s Bradley, projects manager, at athena@nerc.org.