Top: Solana Center For Environmental Innovation’s food waste “bokashi” drop-off (left); Jeff Gage, Green Mountain Technologies (right).

The US Composting Council (USCC) held its annual awards ceremony at COMPOST2023 in late January, highlighting achievements by individuals, compost manufacturers and nonprofit organizations. Recipients include:

• Large-Scale Compost Manufacturer of the Year, which recognizes a commercial-scale U.S. composting facility that produces more than 10,000 tons/year of compost, was given to Napa Recycling & Composting Facility located near Napa, California.
• Small-Scale Composter Manufacturer of the Year Award, given to facilities producing 10,000 tons/year or less, went to the Compost Queen of Fort Collins, Colorado, which “has built the only residential food scrap composting infrastructure in Northern Colorado to provide diversion opportunities in a rapidly growing community.”
• Organics Diversion Program of the Year Award was given to the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation based in Encinitas, California, which was one of the first community-based recycling programs in the U.S. and is a leading education and training facility for residential and community food waste composting.
• H. Clark Gregory Award, which recognizes public outreach as well as outstanding grassroots efforts to promote composting, went to Whitney Cohen, Education Director with Life Lab in Santa Cruz, California, which focuses on garden-based education programs for children.
• Hi Kellogg Award, given to individuals who provided outstanding service to the composting industry, was presented to a long-time composting industry veteran, Bob Yost of A1 Organics. Yost has been a wonderful source of information to BioCycle, always willing to share his knowledge and experiences.
• Jerome Goldstein Lifetime Achievement Award is named after the founder of BioCycle who helped to foster today’s composting industry. The Award recognizes those who achieved excellence in their field of study and honors those who have made significant contributions over their professional career to the field of environmental stewardship and natural resource sustainability. This year’s recipient is Jeff Gage, who has been working in composting for over 35 years, most recently with Green Mountain Technologies. Gage’s knowledge on optimizing composting operations, especially regarding effective odor management, has benefited many compost manufacturers over the years.
• USCC’s Distinguished Service Award went to Cary Oshins, who is retiring. The award recognizes Oshin’s dedication and years of service to the Council and the Compost Research & Education Foundation. His mastery of training compost operators has helped elevate the performance of facilities in the U.S. and other countries.