Composting may be one of the most vital strategies for curbing greenhouse gas emissions. It is an age-old process whose success has been well demonstrated in the U.S. and elsewhere. Composting facilities are far cheaper than landfills and incinerators. Adopting this approach would provide a rapid and cost-effective means to reduce methane and other greenhouse gas emissions, increase carbon storage in soils, and could have a substantial short-term impact on global warming. Below you'll find some interesting composting rules that have been adopted by communiities and states. Here's a breakdown of the state's with rules in two categories: expanding on-farm composting and performance-based standards criteria for composting facilties.
Organic discards — food scraps, leaves, brush, grass clippings, and other yard trimmings — comprise one quarter of all municipal solid waste generated. Of this amount, 38% of yard trimmings end up in landfills and incinerators; for food scraps, the wasting rate is 97.8%. Paper products comprise one-third of all municipal solid waste generated. While 52% of paper products are recovered, paper is still the number one material sent to landfills and incinerators. This waste represents a tremendous opportunity to prevent methane emissions from landfills through expanded recycling, composting, and anaerobic digestion programs. At the same time, compost can also restore depleted soils with nutrient-rich humus and organic matter, providing ancillary benefits that are not realized when systems of incineration and landfilling are used.
NOTE: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region III, Mead Foundation, Park Foundation, Marpat Foundation and the Lang Family Foundation provided funding support for the development of ILSR's summary of select state composting regulations.
State and Local Composting Rules by Various Categories
On-Farm Composting
and Permit Exemptions
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Performance
Based Standards
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Ban on Yard Trimmings in Landfills
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Ban on Food Scraps in Landfills and Mandatory Composting
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In the state rules listed below, the regulatory role is usually aligned around the permitting, siting, and design/operations requirements of composting facilities. Local governments with their oversight of zoning are also a source of composting regulation. Ideally, these would work together in a seamless fashion.
As the COOL2012 campaign notes:
Composting is often not recognized as a traditional land use designation and may be classified as an industrial, rather than an agricultural, activity. This designation can burden composters with excessive regulations and even discourage basic agricultural activities such as farmers processing their own manure or slash on their farms.
Composting regulations typically address concerns over litter, leachate, odor, vectors, dust, noise, security against illegal dumping, protection of surface and groundwater, neighborhood compatibility and pathogen and metal levels in the finished product. Requirements for yard waste composting tend to be much more lenient than those for food waste because of the reduced risk of leachate, odors, vectors and pathogens, generally leading to decreased feelings of “Not In My Back Yard” (NIMBYism).
Some states don't require much of anything in terms of regulations for composting (eg. no permit). Even though we think that composting should be widely encouraged, a vacuum of regulations could lead to poorly operated facilities which would harm the composting industry overall and potentially give composting a bad name and make it harder to expand in the future.
The Benefits of Compost Are Many
- Composting reduces greenhouse gases by preventing methane generation in landfills, storing carbon in the compost product, reducing energy use for water pumping, substituting for energy-intensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides, improving the soil's ability to store carbon, and improving plant growth and thus carbon sequestration.
- Compost encourages the production of beneficial microorganisms, which break down organic matter to create a rich nutrient-filled material called humus.
- Compost is a value-added product with many markets, including land reclamation, silviculture, horticulture, landscaping, and soil erosion control.
- Compost increases the nutrient content in soils.
- Compost helps soils retain moisture.
- Compost reduces the need for chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides.
- Compost suppresses plant diseases and pests.
- Compost promotes higher yields of agricultural crops.
- Compost helps regenerate poor soils.
- Compost has the ability to clean up (remediate) contaminated soil.
- Compost can help prevent pollution and manage erosion problems.
- Composting extends municipal landfill life by diverting organic materials from landfills.
- Composting sustains at least four times more jobs than landfill or incinerator disposal on a per-ton basis.
- Composting is a proven technology.
- Composting is far cheaper than waste incineration.
More Information:
Stop Trashing the
Climate (2008, by by ILSR, GAIA, and Eco-Cycle) provides compelling evidence that preventing waste and expanding reuse, recycling, and composting programs — that is, aiming for zero waste — is one of the fastest, cheapest, and most effective strategies available for combating climate change. This report documents the link between climate change and unsustainable patterns of consumption and wasting, dispels myths about the climate benefits of landfill gas recovery and waste incineration, outlines policies needed to effect change, and offers a roadmap for how to significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within a short period. Significantly decreasing waste disposed in landfills and incinerators will reduce greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent to closing 21% of U.S. coal-fired power plants. This is comparable to leading climate protection proposals such as improving national vehicle fuel efficiency. Indeed, preventing waste and expanding reuse, recycling, and composting are essential to put us on the path to climate stability.
Massachusetts allows certain types of composting operations to be
conditionally exempt from the requirement to obtain a permit as long as
specific performance standards are met. These operations include leaf
composters who have less than 10,000 tons on-site at one time. Many
other types of on-farm composting, including up to 20 cubic yards per
day of vegetative scraps or 5 tons per day of food material, are
permitted if a registration is submitted to the Massachusetts Department
of Food and Agriculture and performance standards are met.
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Pennsylvania, like many other states, has regulations that prohibit yard
trimmings in landfills. Pennsylvania’s ban is less encompassing than
many states, including Massachusetts and Minnesota, which ban yard
trimmings in landfills regardless of their source of generation. Pennsylvania has made a general permit available that will allow farmers
to compost “yard waste, source-separated food scraps from food markets,
grocery stores, food banks, food distribution centers, school
cafeterias, and institutions, source-separated newspaper, and
source-separated corrugated paper (cardboard).” After composting, the
material is no longer considered waste and the farmer can sell or
distribute the material.
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Oregon has complete and pragmatic composting regulations, which aim to both facilitate composting and prevent nuisance to the public or any adverse environmental consequences. Oregon revised its composting regulations in 2009. Oregon's conditional exemptions for small-scale and agricultural compost facilities, specific site requirements that must be fulfilled to receive a permit, and ongoing performance standards that must be maintained are described.
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The City of San Francisco has some of the most progressive recycling regulations in
the country. These regulations were further strengthened in June 2009
when the Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance requiring all city
residents to separate food scraps, recyclable material, and trash into
three separate curbside containers (blue for recycling, black for trash, and green for composting). Starting in 2011 the City will be
able to impose fines on those who do not effectively separate these
materials. The fine will be $100 for small businesses and single
occupancy homes and up to $1,000 for large businesses and multi-unit
buildings.
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Minnesota has been a leader in promoting composting for many years. In 2009, the state passed a law that mandates all yard
trimmings generated in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area cannot be
collected in plastic bags as of January 2010. The intent of the law is to prevent
non-biodegradable plastic from entering composting facilities. The
compostable bag law was an amendment to the existing yard trimmings
diversion law (stipulating that yard trimmings may not be sent to
landfills and instead must be composted) that went into effect statewide in 1994.
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New York requires agricultural composters who accept any amount of food
scraps from off-site to apply for a permit. In addition to the permit
requirement, composters must adhere to specific performance standards
including methods of vector and pathogen reduction. Some non-food
materials, including animal manure and no more than 3,000 cubic yards of
yard trimmings per year, may be conditionally exempt from the permit
requirement.
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Rhode Island requires most small-scale composters to submit a
registration to the state. Certain composting activities such as
applying agricultural manures or composting agricultural by-products
produced on-site may be conducted without a registration. In order for
an agricultural composter to accept paper, yard trimmings, or food
scraps from off-site they must receive approval from the Rhode Island Department of
Environmental Management.
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Iowa has some good regulations to encourage on-farm, small-scale food
scrap composting. The rules allow composters to accept up to two tons
of food scraps from off-site per week without obtaining a solid waste
permit. The composters must comply with specific site and operating
requirements or their exempt status may be revoked. Facilities composting over two tons of food residuals and yard waste per
week in any combination from off premises must obtain a permit and adhere to the solid waste composting requirements
stipulated in state rules.
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The Florida Department of Environmental Protection recently revised
Chapter 62-709 of the Administrative Code, which regulates composting
operations. The Department also revised several related forms including
the Application for a Permit to Construct/Operate a Solid Waste
Management Facility for the Production of Compost and the Annual Report
form. The changes should make it easier to compost in Florida and
smaller facilities may qualify as a pilot projec with reduced regulatory
oversight.
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Maine adopted new state composting rules on February 18, 2009. The
state legislature mandated that the Departments of Agriculture and
Environmental Protection collaborate to ease the regulatory burden on
agricultural composting operations and revise the volume and types of
materials that may be composted without a permit from the state. The state must
differentiate between composters processing “municipal sludge, septage,
industrial sludge or other materials with a higher risk of
contamination” and agricultural composting operations, which are defined
as “composting that takes place on a farm and uses only animal manure,
animal carcasses and offal, fish waste, leaves, wood chips, animal
bedding and other vegetative waste, produce and other vegetable and food
waste.”
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California has thorough regulations that are specifically tailored to composting. Most composting operations are required to apply for a permit; however there are exemptions for some types of operations. For example, facilities that have less than 500 cubic yards of compost on-site, of which less than 10 percent is food scraps, are exempt from the requirement to obtain a permit. In addition, in-vessel composting of up to 50 cubic yards is allowed without a permit. Composting operations that are deemed a greater risk of causing environmental harm are required to either notify the enforcement agency or apply for a full permit.
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Washington has comprehensive composting regulations that facilitate
composting by conditionally exempting several types of composting
facilities – including those that process limited amounts of food scraps
– from the requirement to obtain a permit. Washington also aims to
protect the environment and human health by requiring composters to test
for pathogens and adhere to specific performance-based standards.
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