Top: Green waste composting at Z-Best in Gilroy, California. Photos courtesy of Z-Best

The Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF) and the US Composting Council (USCC) have signed a Memorandum of Agreement in which they will work together to evaluate the state of practice of composting in the U.S. Key elements of the assessment are to determine accessibility to commercial composting, quantify the number of composting facilities, aggregate the economic data and better understand various attributes of composting operations (e.g. technologies used, tonnage processed, etc.). The EREF will be facilitating the study and will gather data that ranges from facility throughput, compost volume sold, employee headcount and other downstream financial impacts of the industry, to the current state of practice regarding equipment types, tipping fees, feedstock types and technologies. Survey data will be aggregated to paint a complete picture of the industry, providing needed metrics for decision-making by USCC members and allied industries, policy makers and municipalities, and the overall organics recycling industry. The project is expected to be completed in 2022 and a report will be released.