The Composting Collaborative unites composters, consumer-facing businesses, and policymakers to share best practices, resources, and generate innovative solutions to shared challenges. The mission is to accelerate composting access and infrastructure to improve soil health and divert compostables from landfill.

Background

The Composting Collaborative was hatched after recognition that actors in the composting space are incredibly passionate, but often work in a siloed manner that could benefit from cross-pollination. For effective organics recycling, active participation from households, retailers, and manufacturers are necessary to create clean feedstocks and support from the public and private sector is needed to make the business cases of compost manufacturers work well. As more city, municipal, and state organics recycling programs come on-line, we understand that collaboration will be key in scaling composting nationwide.

Who is involved

Founded by GreenBlue, BioCycle Magazine, and the US Composting Council with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an advisor, the Composting Collaborative brings stakeholders from across the compost supply chain together. We work with compost manufacturers and haulers, food waste and compostables generators, compostable packaging and resin producers, as well as compost end users. Collaborative members also include cities and municipalities, higher-ed institutions, and policy stakeholders.

November 2016 Dialogue

Washington, DC – The Collaborative’s kick-off meeting in our nation’s capital provided a full day forum for composting stakeholders to meet and brainstorm work that would best maximize the unique qualities of groups that the Composting Collaborative brings together. The course for the Collaborative’s future work was set and critical stakeholders yet to be engaged were identified.

January 2017 Dialogue

Los Angeles, CA – In January, the Composting Collaborative convened at the US Composting Council’s annual conference. Attendees hashed out and prioritized the project ideas fashioned in the November meeting. With a couple top contenders in hand, attendees volunteered resources and time to get work off the ground.

April 2017 Dialogue

Baltimore, MD – Co-located with BioCycle’s Spring conference, the Collaborative got together for a series of flash talks and panel speakers exploring topics of interest relating to potential project work. Zeroing in on growing end markets, as well as defining pretreatment and accelerated composting systems, energetic discussion cemented the topics as definite areas of work and informed the direction of the Collaborative’s first identified projects.