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In
order to address industry requirements, the US Composting
Council developed the Seal of Testing Assurance Program.
By
Ron Alexander
For compost to gain a reputation as a mainstream lawn/garden
and agricultural product, the composting industry must
raise its professionalism and work to both produce consistently
high-quality products and assist end users with purchasing
the products they require. In order to address these
industry requirements, the United States Composting
Council (USCC) developed the Seal of Testing Assurance
(STA) Program. With financial assistance provided by
the Environmental Protection Agency, USCC kicked off
the STA Program in 2000. The program is seen by many
as the first step toward establishing national compost
standards. In its current form, however, the STA Program
is a compost-testing and information-disclosure program
that uses uniform testing and sampling protocols. The
STA Program uses test methods and sampling procedures
outlined in USCC's Test Methods for the Evaluation
of Composting and Compost.
The
goal of USCC's STA Program is to allow compost buyers
to purchase more easily the products they desire or
require for a particular project. Another goal is to
allow buyers and specifiers to compare compost products
more systematically, allowing for an educated purchasing
decision. This can be achieved if participating composters
use a uniform product label, containing test-analysis
data, end-user instructions, and an ingredient statement.
Educated purchasing decisions will help ensure successful
utilization of compost in the field. What is even more
important to the composting industry itself, however,
is that the overall program is encouraging needed consistency
within the composting industry - consistency in product
sampling, lab-testing methodologies, and product labeling.
Only through this type of industrywide consistency will
the "green" industry become dependent on the
composting industry as a respected and ongoing supplier
of materials. Therefore the success of the STA Program
goes far beyond the success of any individual composter:
It works toward the goal of bringing necessary consistency
to the composting industry.
Current
Status
The
STA Program has continued to grow in participation since
its inception, with very little attrition of participants
from year to year. Almost 100 compost products, representing
more than 60 companies and 3 million yd.3 of
compost, now are certified through the program. The
prowess of the program also has improved with end users
and specifiers across the country. Indeed efforts to
promote the program to landscape architects and government
entities have led to STA Program - certified composts
being specified by name in more and more landscape and
construction projects. Although significant efforts
have been made on an ongoing basis to educate end users
and specifiers about the benefits of using STA Program - certified
composts, the composters receiving the greatest benefits
from the program are still those actively promoting
it during their ongoing sales and marketing efforts.
The USCC STA Program logo can be seen on many bags of
compost, products containing compost, pieces of product
literature, and promotional advertisements.
Other
new developments have occurred that affect the growth
and reputation of the program.
Texas
One
state that has embraced the STA Program is Texas. Thanks
to the efforts of Scott McCoy of the Texas Commission
on Environmental Quality and Barrie Cogburn of the Texas
Department of Transportation (TXDOT), TXDOT has become
the largest public user of compost in the nation. Many
articles have been written to illustrate the success
TXDOT has had with compost used as both a soil amendment
and an erosion control material. With all of its success
in using compost, TXDOT knew that receiving and using
poor-quality compost could tarnish the success of its
program. Having already established its compost specifications,
TXDOT saw the STA Program as a way to implement them.
Since the program requires uniform, ongoing testing
of compost products and uniform product labeling, it
was seen as a means for TXDOT project engineers to evaluate
the potential compost products for their projects, as
well as for TXDOT field inspectors to know what products
were delivered to their project sites. Since TXDOT started
requiring the use of only STA Program - certified products,
16 Texas composters and 30 products - all soil amendment
and erosion control composts - have been certified.
An
exciting development to the Texas story is that many
companies marketing outside of the TXDOT market are
seeing STA Program certification as a prerequisite for
doing business. At the recent Texas Nursery & Landscape
Association conference, 5 of the 15 actual compost producers
at the conference were STA Program participants, and
they proudly displayed the STA Program logo in their
booth displays, literature, and product bags. Several
others are evaluating enrollment.
AASHTO
The STA Program
also will benefit from the approval of the new American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
(AASHTO) erosion control specifications for compost.
Specifications have been developed for the use of compost
in blanket and berm applications, and the approved specifications
now have been published in the 2003 AASHTO Provisional
Standards manual. To illustrate that a compost has
met the erosion control product specifications, the
same slate of tests required by the STA Program (and
the same test methods) must be analyzed (the testing
slate can be found in Table 1). Since similar testing
will be required, there will be little additional expense
to join the STA Program for those composters producing
an erosion control compost. Since the use of compost
in erosion control is still a new application, it also
will benefit from the credibility of the STA Program.
As these
examples illustrate, the STA Program has started to
make the national impact that USCC hoped it would many
years ago while still in its formative stages within
the Market Development Committee. Working with USCC,
the composting industry must continue to build on the
credibility of the STA Program, expanding composter
involvement in the program and end-user/specifier knowledge
about it.
For additional
information regarding the STA Program, contact the program
managers (Ron Alexander, 919/367-8350, or Al Rattie,
215/258-5259) or log on to the USCC Web site at www.compostingcouncil.org.
For additional information on the AASHTO erosion control
specifications, contact Ron Alexander or visit www.alexassoc.net.
Ron
Alexander is president of R. Alexander Associates Inc.
and comanager of the STA Program.
MSW
- Elements 2005
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