Presented at POWER meeting Santa Clara, California US Composting Council Conference & Trade Show January 24, 2011 This presentation outlines the benefits of composting and the role of compostable biobased products in helping to recover food scraps and move toward zero waste economies.
The Bio Specs for Food Service Ware outline sustainability criteria and recognition levels for food service ware made from compostable biobased materials. They provide a framework that enables buyers to assess the sustainability of these products during three stages of their life cycle: (1) biomass production, (2) manufacturing, and (3) end of product life. “Sustainability” encompasses … Read More
Presented to the National Park Service, National Capital Region Sustainability Advisory Group in Washington, DC
Prepared for the City of Atlanta, this report on anaerobic digesters (AD) around North examines several existing AD projects that have a history of operational success and profiles some of the projects that are close to coming online.… Read More
Composting is an important strategy for recycling organic materials that might otherwise be disposed in landfills or incinerators. This April 2010 report, Summary of Select State Composting Regulations, identifies 11 states with notable regulations governing compost facilities. … Read More
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 … Read More
Presented at the Alison Ferguson Foundation’s Trash Summit in Washington, DC
The Sustainable Biomaterials Collaborative (SBC) provides purchasing specifications for buyers of compostable food service ware. These specifications were designed to find products that are sustainable from cradle-to-cradle, including biomass production, manufacturing, and recovery. The specifications require that products meet certain standards and hold certain certifications of products to prevent purchasers from buying “greenwashed” items, which fail … Read More
The SBC’s Guidelines for Sustainable Bioplastics proposes goals and a roadmap for improving the sustainability of bioplastics – defined for this document as plastics in which 100% of the carbon is derived from renewable agricultural and forestry resources. While these Guidelines focus on biobased plastic replacements for fossil-fuel-based plastics, many of the principles apply to other … Read More
