(Host) Despite public awareness of the benefits of composting, the industry is facing some serious challenges.
That’s the message that was delivered Tuesday at the Third Annual Vermont Organics Recycling Summit in Randolph Center.
Tom Gilbert is with the Composting Association of Vermont.
He says as much as 70 percent of Vermont’s organic waste – which includes things such as food scraps – ends up in landfills instead of being composted.
Gilbert says the waste could be used to improve soils and produce energy.
(Gilbert) "And so if we’re very serious about capturing resources, we’ve got to set some policy forward that articulates that, for instance putting forward a ban on sending organic materials to landfills within the next ten years. "
(Host) Gilbert says another issue facing the composting industry is a lack of capital needed to build facilities.
In more populous states, large composting operations have run into public opposition, but Gilbert says all of Vermont’s composting could be done with farm-based facilities.
(Gilbert) "Vermont‘s in a great position to leverage the existing agricultural base to handle a lot of the food scraps that are generated in the rural communities. It wouldn’t take us too much more time to really build out the infrastructure for the larger communities."
(Host) Gilbert says a bill moving through the Vermont legislature right now will hopefully address some of the permitting problems that compost facilities have run into in recent years.