"Innovations" Case Studies: Organics Options

Locating and Attracting Composting Facilities

• Overview
• Selling Compost Products
  • Impacts of Electricity Deregulation
  • Agricultural Markets
  • CCQC
• Buying Compost Products
  • Community Procurement Programs
  • Permit Conditions for New Developments

Overview

Siting composting facilities was one of the great challenges of the past decade. Many composting facilities have been sited close to existing landfills. To attract landscapers and others with green waste to use their facilities, the composters charge a tipping fee that is less than the rate charged at the landfill.

During the past decade, some facilities have experienced problems with organics processing operations (particularly “chip and grind” facilities). These facilities operated without the proper local land use and solid waste facility permits. Some of these facilities received odor and fire complaints that eventually led to site closures, site cleanup, and remediation requirements. This demonstrates the importance to communities of working with qualified and permitted facility operators.

Many communities today solicit private composting operators via requests for proposals for composting services (which may or may not include collection of the materials). Or they may solicit indirectly through a yard trimmings recycling collection company.

Communities should be particularly concerned about the following when selecting a composting facility:

• Background and experience of the service provider
• Technical knowledge of composting processes
• Marketing experience in sale or use of products
• Status of permits and enforcement track record
• Financial capabilities to accomplish proposed activities

In soliciting for composting facilities, communities typically request some compost products be provided free of charge. The products are requested for community use in parks and landscaping or for public promotion of the composting and recycling program.

San Jose requested a portion of the compost for city use in experiments to document the value of compost for different purposes to help expand the marketplace.

In addition to yard trimmings, many communities are including wood wastes as part of the scope of these proposals. Other materials and services that could be included in such solicitations, depending on community needs and costs, could be:

• Wood debris from construction and demolition
• Firewood for sale (especially from stumps and large logs, using “log splitters.”)
• Gypsum wallboard composting
• Lumber salvaging
• Pallet rebuilding
• Manures (horse and zoo)

Communities could encourage composting and reuse and recycling companies to jointly supply these services. This would encourage creative partnerships, a greater diversity of services, and competitive prices.

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Selling Compost Products

Markets for compost products have changed dramatically during the past decade. In 2000, the CIWMB concluded that another 9 million tons of organic materials needed to be recycled under anticipated scenarios for meeting IWMA goals. To accomplish that, new markets needed to be developed, particularly in the agricultural, landscaping, and horticultural industries.

Impacts of Electricity Deregulation

California’s composting industry was partly built in the late 1980s on facilities selling biomass fuels produced from yard and wood wastes for electricity production. Biomass plants had been built throughout the state in response to government incentives adopted in the late 1970s and early 1980s to make California less dependent on foreign oil for its energy needs.

Biomass plants in the early 1990s bought wood chips from $20 to $40 per bone-dry ton. This enabled many composting facilities to amortize their investments in processing equipment and to accept yard and wood wastes at low enough costs to compete with landfills in their areas.

By the mid-1990s, proposals were seriously circulating to deregulate the electricity generating industry in California. The proposals impacted the composting industry particularly hard.

The prices electric companies had paid for electricity produced from biomass-fueled generating plants were dropped dramatically. This was due to anticipation of legislation authorizing electric deregulation (Chapter 854, Statutes of 1996 [Brulte, AB 1890]). The average prices paid for biomass wood wastes dropped to $0 to $10 per bone-dry ton today (although some facilities may get up to $20 per bone-dry ton for high quality material.)

As a result of this pressure, composters were forced to raise their tipping fees to obtain more revenue from the processing of materials and to diversify their markets. Although the diversification of markets proved beneficial in the long run, the higher tipping fees required for composters exacerbated the problems with ADC noted above.

Agricultural Markets

The CIWMB recognized the need to diversify composting markets in partnership with California’s agriculture industry. Since 1994, the CIWMB has been actively involved in funding demonstration projects that field-test the uses of compost and mulch in various situations.

The CIWMB has funded field projects that monitor the effects of compost on crop and soil productivity. Other CIWMB projects have examined the use of compost as a soil erosion prevention tool. In addition, the CIWMB has developed regional partnerships with various growers and communities to promote the use of compost and mulch through field days and demonstrations. Through all these efforts, compost has been shown to have a wide range of beneficial uses in both agriculture and pollution control activities.

Agricultural demonstrations have been completed in:

• Fresno County
• Monterey Bay region
• San Jose region
• Stanislaus County
• Tulare County
• Southern California

Compost and mulch are also currently being examined for their erosion control properties. The CIWMB contracted with the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) to conduct research on the use of mulch to control erosion on highway rights-of-way. Vineyards also have been interested in using mulch as a cost-effective alternative to straw and cover crops for hillside erosion control.

Growing operations continue to expand onto hillsides, and many jurisdictions are beginning to require mitigation measures for such erosion control. The CIWMB has funded two hillside vineyard erosion control projects in Napa and Sonoma Counties, as well as research on the use of mulch in controlling erosion in citrus orchards in Ventura County.

Other potential markets for compost and mulch include:

• Horticulture
• Wetland restoration
• Bio-remediation of air and wastewater streams
• Mine reclamation

The CIWMB is funding two new projects with the University of California-Davis this year to explore innovative uses of compost and mulch by end users. Specifically, UC Davis will be evaluating the use of compost to control phylloxen in vineyards and the use of compost on cover crops for vegetable production.

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CCQC

The California Compost Quality Council (CCQC) is a unique alliance of compost producers, scientists, farmers, landscape contractors, and recycling advocates formed to administer compost quality guidelines in California. The CCQC operates an independent verification program through which compost producers can assure consumers that quality claims have been verified.

Compost producers who meet the criteria established by CCQC can display the CCQC registration seal (above) on their products. This is intended to provide farmers, nurseries, landscapers, groundskeepers, and others in green industries with extra confidence in the quality and consistency of the compost products they use. Reliable product information allows compost users to compare different products and determine what is best for their specific application.

Registered operations must meet several minimum requirements:

• Producers are in compliance with State composting regulations
• Compost meets State standards in terms of pathogen reduction and trace element concentrations
• Producers have an active quality control program
• Producers allow CCQC inspectors on-site

Participating CCQC compost producers must disclose information on important product and process parameters. Independent parties verify the information disclosed, including:

• Organic matter content
• Salinity
• Feedstock materials (including additives or amendments)
• Screen size or maximum particle size
• Bulk density
• Moisture content at time of transport
• PH

The many different parameters of a compost dictate how and where that material can best be used. There are currently 15 facilities registered with CCQC:

1. Sonoma Compost Company, Petaluma.
2. Napa Garbage, Napa.
3. Grover Landscape Services, Inc., Manteca.
4. Cold Canyon Compost, San Luis Obispo.
5. City of LA-Griffith Park, Los Angeles.
6. New Era Farm Service, Visalia.
7. Community Recycling and Resource Recovery, Bakersfield.
8. Nortech Compost, Roseville.
9. Z-Best Compost, San Jose.
10. Napa Valley Farm and Garden Products, St. Helena.
11. Sun-Land Garden Products, Monterey.
12. Newby Island Landfill (BFI), San Jose.
13. California Biomass, Thermal.
14. B&J Compost Facility, Vacaville.
15. Zanker Road Compost, San Jose.

In addition, CCQC has set a goal of having 20 registered producers in the near future. The existing registered facilities above represent as much as half of all compost produced in California. Annual fees for facility registration are based upon compost production.

CCQC maintains a database of compost producers in the state to help interested buyers locate suppliers of quality compost. CCQC coordinates with a network of soil scientists and laboratory professionals who are able to answer technical questions regarding compost characteristics, applications, and related issues. CCQC also assists with referrals to others who use compost in particular applications.

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Buying Compost Products

State and local agencies need to buy compost and mulch products to help create the new and expanded markets necessary for achieving IWMA goals. Agencies that use recycled organic materials in landscapes will also find that it enhances soil fertility and water-holding capacity, slows evaporation losses, increases plant drought tolerance, conserves water, and suppresses the spread of wild fires. Using compost and mulch products will reduce fertilizer and water usage, which in turn reduces toxic runoff that can lead to surface and groundwater pollution.

As a public service to residents, landscapers, and State and local agencies, CIWMB maintains a listing of compost and mulch producers. To be included on the list, producers must meet the following criteria:

• Products must be available in bulk and are listed only in counties where materials are produced or stored.
• All products produced must comply with the CIWMB composting facility regulations, PRC Title 14: Chapter 3.1.

Mulching and vermicomposting, which are considered “excluded activities” in the composting regulations, may also be listed if they are in compliance with applicable State minimum standards. In addition, composting businesses may be listed with “permit pending” status if appropriate permitting paperwork has been submitted to local agencies and verified with the local enforcement agency by CIWMB staff.

The CIWMB is also developing the following:

• Fact sheets on how to develop specifications for compost and mulch procurement.
• Fact sheets for compost and mulch application rates for end uses in landscaping, nurseries, horticulture, and turf grass production and maintenance.
• Case studies that document successful local government and State agency compost and mulch programs.
• An updated recycled-content products database (recently completed).
• Workshops and educational materials designed to help increase the supply of quality compost in California and promote markets for compost and mulch.

Community Procurement Programs

Some communities are specifying the use of compost and mulch products in publicly funded construction and maintenance projects, including streets, highways, mass transit facilities, parks, public buildings, housing, erosion control, and environmental restoration projects.

The CIWMB is actively working to ensure that State agencies do their part to help the community in which they are located to meet its diversion mandate. Through the State Agency Buy Recycled Campaign, the CIWMB is working to increase the amount of recycled-content materials that State agencies purchase, including compost and mulch.

Permit Conditions For New Developments

One of the most powerful and familiar tools for local governments is the placing of conditions on local land use permits. Planning departments can include recycling and recycled-content requirements in conditional use permits.

In Los Angeles, approval of the Playa Vista development of 5.1 million square feet of commercial space and 13,000 residential units included special conditions for:

• Recycling C&D debris
• Use of recycled-content products
• Ongoing recycling programs

More than 84,000 tons of C&D material was recycled (including 9,000 tons of green waste), recovering 92 percent of all materials generated. Many other recycling efforts are underway. Based on the success of this project, the Los Angeles City Council has passed a motion to develop similar sustainable development guidelines for all future city building projects and private sector developments.

Other communities could follow this lead. In addition to the recycling of green waste, communities could require public and private developers to use compost and mulch products as part of the conditions for approval of those projects.

In addition, communities could advocate that projects built with State and federal funding within their community use the maximum amount of recycled products, including compost and mulch. This could have a major impact in stimulating the use of locally generated compost and mulch products.

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Last updated: December 28, 2007