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The USCC and Post-Landfill Action Network (PLAN) this week released a manual detailing the issues of planning a college or university composting program in response to high demand for diversion of food waste from disposal on campuses.
Users of the manual will find information ranging from strategic decisions and information that needs to be solidified at startup to collection contracts, processes for choosing compostable products and technical considerations for on-campus composting.
The Manual is only available to members of both organizations. To download, click here.
In October, I had the unexpected opportunity to take my first trip to China. I was invited to participate in a "Zero Waste Workshop" as part of a annual regional economic development conference in the city of Shaoxing.
As the leaders in composting and compost-allied businesses and compost research and education, USCC and the Composting Council Research and Education Foundation are on a search for posters from young professionals in the compost, compostable products and organics recycling/zero waste space to display at COMPOST2020 and provide them with a chance to explain their work and compete for cash prizes.
This event, in its first year, is an opportunity to feature your projects in front of a wide audience of composters, investors, academics and more and features small cash prizes for the posters deemed by popular acclaim as the top of their class.
The Poster and Pitching Competition is sponsored by the Composting Council Research and Education Foundation and the USCC Young Professionals. The Research and Proposals section, sponsored by the CCREF, will feature any entries related to research, proposed or completed, and proposed campus projects. The Projects and Innovative Entrepreneurs section, sponsored by the USCC YPs, will feature any entries related to existing campus or non-profit projects, existing businesses of less than three years since formation or proposed non-profit projects or businesses.
All entries are limited to Young Professionals between 18 and 40 years of age. See details and application here.
 
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The latest from Colorado, Maryland/D.C. and North Carolina.
In a different viewpoint not often considered in recalls and market advisories that send tons of fresh produce to landfills, the U.S. Composting Council is urging the industry to compost romaine linked to an E. coli outbreak. The council asks members of the produce industry to divert Salinas, Calif., romaine to an industrial composter.
Stan Slaughter dished the dirt on the importance of composting and other related recycling topics to 140 fifth-graders during a recent assembly at Sunflower Elementary in Paola. Slaughter, an education and garden specialist with Missouri Organic Recycling, engaged students with a variety of silly songs and hard facts about composting and growing sustainable foods at the Nov. 22 assembly in the school’s gym.
The U.S. EPA reported a slight increase in the national recycling rate, from 34.6% in 2015 to 35.2% in 2017, in a newly released edition of the Advancing Sustainable Materials Management report. Overall MSW generation increased from 262.1 million tons to 267.8 million tons during that same period, while per capita generation held steady around 4.51 pounds daily.
A new World Wildlife Fund report estimates U.S. school food waste totals 530,000 tons per year and costs as much as $9.7 million a day to manage, which breaks down to about 39.2 pounds of food waste and 19.4 gallons of milk thrown out per school per year, based on the results from the 46-school sample across nine cities.
Funded by grants from Comcast and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Philadelphia's Community Composting Network is headed up by the city’s Office of Sustainability and Department of Parks and Recreation. They provide the 12x4x4-foot, three-compartment compost bin, training and ongoing support for each site as it gets set up.
Have you had a chance to investigate what you can do in the Member Portal we launched last spring ( login here)? You can now connect directly with other members, send messages and post to your wall (all levels can message and post except individual).
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Fabri-Kal has announced changes to its Greenware® Cold Cup line that will boost foodservice operator efficiency. The five most popular Greenware Cold Cup sizes now fit a single lid series, enabling operators to reduce SKUs. This improvement will increase back-of-house efficiency and decrease clutter at the beverage station.
Green Mountain Technologies has been issued U.S. Patent no. 10414696 has been issued for both radial and circular composting systems. The primary benefit of the new designs is to improve handling efficiency and reduce the footprint for large aerated composting systems.
Remember that member survey you filled out last summer to help our Board of Directors with information as they entered their strategic planning session? Well, we promised to draw a winner from the completed surveys who would receive a free pass to COMPOST2020. Kristen Baskin of Let Us Compost, a composter in Athens, GA, and longtime member, was the lucky winner! Go Kristen!
Welcome to all our new members for November!
The Compost Exchange, a Columbus-based company that collects and recycles food scraps from Columbus residents and transform them into high nutrient compost and specialty soils, seeks an operations management/business development professional.
Magnus Kallas, a resident of London, England, beat hundreds of entries for the winning design for the 2020 International Compost Awareness poster design contest, the Composting Council Research and Education Foundation announced this month.
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Jan 2020
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Deadline to propose: Jan. 15, 2020 Conference: May 5-7, 2020; Bay City, MI
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15
Jan 2020
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Speaker proposal deadline: Jan. 15, 2020 Summit: June 17-18, 2020; Minneapolis, MN
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28
Jan 2020
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January 28-31, 2020; Charleston, SC
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Feb 2020
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Feb. 22, 2020; Syracuse, NY
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Mar 2020
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March 19-20, 2020; Berkeley, CA
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Mar 2020
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March 30 - April 2, 2020; Sacramento, CA
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May 2020
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May 4-7, 2020; New Orleans, LA
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It’s so simple to pick up the phone and advocate and educate—whether it’s with a local solid waste management official, a legislator or a local reporter. It works!
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USCC NEWS
