When we say organics recycling, we are referring to all activities that collect, process, and use organic waste derived materials. Many organic materials are collected from urban environments and transported to processing sites. In rural areas, opportunity to process on-site is building momentum. It is easily said that organics recycling can be a resource or economic development strategy as well as a waste management mechanism.

Most everyone is familiar with back yard compost or worm bin and yard debris collection. But the materials that can potentially be collected in the urban environment also include storm debris, food waste, biosolids, and residues from food or other manufacturing processes, just to name a few. In rural areas organics materials can be manure, field crop residues, and wood waste from logging and land clearing. A great deal of focus and attention has recently been directed at both on-farm composting (especially from a water quality perspective) and wood waste processing (from an air quality perspective.)

These are just a few of the elements in organic waste recycling but opportunities to recover more resources grow each day. The variety of materials and processes that can be processed into value added resources are limited only by technology, innovation, and creativity. New methods and techniques appear in the industry on a regular basis.

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In September 1999, the Recycling Assessment Panel was convened by the Department of Ecology to assess the causes of recent years' reduction in recycling in Washington State. Washington was considered one of the national leaders in recycling and went from a recycling rate of 39% in 1996 to 32.4% the following year. There are many factors involved in the reduction and the Panel was put together to identify, examine, and recommend actions to increase recycling.

The Panel issued a report in December 1999, "Revitalizing Recycling in Washington," which identified recycling as integral in maintaining environmental quality and supporting sustainable development.

The Panel saw the potential to divert as much as one third of the organic materials that enter the waste stream and end up in landfills. The benefits to water quality, water resources, pollution control, and soil quality are significant, and will support farm management, sustainable urban development, restoration, remediation, fish habitat protection, natural landscaping and much more.

The Panel recommended boosting local efforts to capture locally produced material by source category and end use, and, on a statewide level, to increase communication and coordination of policies and practices across the state.

A full report documenting the activities of the panel is available on Ecology's website, or through Cullen Stephenson, Department of Ecology, 360-407-6103.

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In short, local health departments issue permits for solid waste handling which Ecology reviews. This framework is unique among states - most state environmental agencies directly regulate and enforce solid waste handling.

The end results of organics recycling are compost, mulch, and other valuable products. Composting is nature's way of restoring nutrients back into the environment in forms that can be utilized by plants for nutrients, increase soil water and air holding capacity, and provide erosion control. 

In 1998, there were 30 compost facilities permitted by local health departments in Washington State. Facilities in the Puget Sound area produced approximately 450,000 cubic yards of compost. Statewide, approximately 595,000 cubic yards were produced. These figures don't include agricultural composting operations which process farm waste without permit by local health departments. The agriculture sector has tremendous potential to add to a healthy organics recycling industry and recover more resources for amending soils and increasing their value. Tapping into the "urban /agriculture interface" will expand the industry and help provide a diversity of facility types and sizes.

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