Yard Waste Meeting June 5, 2006

Members Present:

Tom Houska

Dick Pack

Lonnie Heflin

Hetty Francke

Charles Jenner

Jim Short

Jeff Deats

Wes Roan

Al Ostrand

Tracy Copeland

Coralie Pride

Members of the Public Present

Allen Muller

Paul Sample

Bob Palmer--319 Grant Opportunities

Bob Palmer talked about the 319 grant program and how it applies to composting facilities. The grants for composting would apply to run-off and demonstration projects, and any public or private entity could apply. The deadline for application for these grants is May 10 of each year, so the opportunity has expired for this year. This grant requires 40% matching funds by the grant applicant, which can be for people’s salaries. Grants that focus on improved water quality and best management practices are funded most often; a demonstration of best management practices for composting would be a good application. The grant should demonstrate a measurable environmental effect like load reduction to stream. Most grants are between $25,000 and $250,000.

The best way for business to apply is to partner with Delaware State or the University of Delaware; which would make it easier to disseminate information down the road, for educational purposes.

Teresa Crenshaw –Ag’s Fertilizer RegistrationProgram

Under Delaware’s Commercial Fertilizer and Soil Conditioner Law, compost can be sold as a fertilizer or as a soil conditioner. If you want to call your product a fertilizer, it must contain and guarantee plant nutrients; a product is considered to be a soil conditioner in Delaware if you don’t want to make a nutrient claim for it. Registration is required forcompost that is either a fertilizer or a soil conditioner whether it is sold or given away in Delaware—if it’s not for self use, it’s a commercial product. If a product is made by a community and used by members of that community, you don’t need to register.

Labeling for compost as a fertilizer must list a minimum nutrient content and as a soil conditioner must list what it’s used for. If you sell it in packages of ten pounds or less, the registration fee is $28.75 per year. For larger packages or bulk, the registration fee is $1.15, but you have to report tonnage semi-annually, and pay ten cents per ton.

Ag has been working with USCC on changing to labeling that gives the nutrient content at a finished product moisture level, and gives a minimum level for N, P, and K in the product.

A question was raised about regulation of herbicide contamination in compost, particularly clopyralid which is not broken down in composting process. Delaware doesn’t regulate this right now and hasn’t seen a problem yet, or at least that anyone is aware of. The West coast has been dealing with regulation of metal content; this came up because there were some incidents of heavy metal contamination in Washington, Oregon, and California. In these states, manufacturers have to test before a product can be sold, and be listed on the web site for any compost and fertilizer producer; this mostly came out of concerns for traditional fertilizers (phosphate types).

In Delaware, Ag doesn’t test the product at the time of approval. Ag inspectors go into the marketplace periodically and take cross sample of products sold in the State of Delaware, and make sure that any product on the shelves is labeled correctly and registered with Ag. If a product is not registered, the manufacturer is contacted.

Review of changes to the Draft Guidelines

We discussed changes Charles Jenner recommended to the draft guidelines which included expanded definitions and an explanation that mulching companies and landscapers are different types of entities than composting facilities. We also discussed how to address co-mingled materials that are not suitable for composting because they are more inorganic (stones, soil, trash, etc.) than organic. The consensus was that this would really be handled by the compost facility. Some of the inorganic material would be taken out by pre-screening large material and fines, which would take out trash, large stones, and fine soil. A compost facility would get back to the hauler if they had a lot of bad loads, which would show up in screenings of final compost. If it’s somebody they do a lot of business with, they would deal with an occasional bad load. The waste collector has authority to not take contaminated material at the curb; and the compost facility/operator can reject a heavily contaminated load.

The question was raised, if you use a compost system, what would stop you from calling your product a mulch to get around these guidelines? These guidelines are for composting operations, and we don’t want to cover mulching operations. DNREC representatives will work on finding definitions of mulch and compost to use in the guidelines that will help to distinguish between the two types of facilities; we will look to MACA and USCC for a definition of compost; and get a definition of mulch from mulchandsoilcouncil.org or other suitable sources. If there’s a need in the future, we’ll come back and address mulching operations. Fire, leachate, odor, noise, fugitive dust, poison ivy, and aspergillus could all be problems with a mulching operation if not managed properly.

A question was raised about regulation of mulching operations in other states. Maryland regulates Coastal Hardwood and Softwood, and requires a discharge permit for a non-point source. In some states, mulching operations would be regulated by solid waste authorities.

A suggestion was made that we should not use plastic bags for yard waste collection. People buy thick contractor bags, and compost facilities can’t break them open with standard equipment. Paper bags work better, and they will break down in the compost. We should state in the guidelines that we want to steer clear of yard waste collection bags that will cause a problem. Right now DSWA supplies plastic bags. Montgomery County, MD uses large paper bags for yard waste collection; these are sold at home centers. The paper bags can be bad for pick up on rainy days; but, to solve this problem, they mounted a toter on a tipping cart, so that it would be able to pick up bags even if they were wet and falling apart.

The Next Meeting

The next meeting was set for Thursday, June 15th from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. DNREC representatives will see if a meeting room is available in Smyrna, since several members said they would prefer to meet there. DSWA will get their conference room as a back-up meeting room, if nothing is available in Smyrna.