About the Webinar:

Solid waste policies only work when people participate. Washington's Organics Management Laws set an ambitious target: reduce organic materials going to landfill by 75% or more by 2030 through food waste prevention, rescue, and recycling. If implemented successfully, the laws are projected to triple organics collection statewide by 2035, but that outcome depends on individual residents and workers actually putting food and yard waste in the right bin.

So how do we get them there?

Join three industry veterans for a candid conversation about what works, and what doesn't, when building community engagement programs from the ground up.

• Jeff Gage, of Green Mountain Technologies and co-founder of Seattle's Master Composters Program (1986), will share lessons from one of the region's longest-running and most successful resident engagement programs.

• Sam Wilder, of Wilder Environmental Consulting, will draw on decades of hands-on experience supporting resident engagement for some of Washington's most populous jurisdictions, with examples from across King County.

• Robbette Schmit, of Winton MFG Compost Works, will share her perspective as a compost operator who also works directly with customers and community members to drive participation in a region where organics collection is just getting started.

Together, they will trace a full arc, from early program-building to mature systems to emerging infrastructure, offering practical takeaways for anyone working to move the needle on organics recycling.

About the Speakers:

Jeff Gage
Green Mountain Technologies | Co-founder, Seattle Master Composter Program

Jeff Gage has spent more than four decades at the intersection of composting science and community practice. As a director at Green Mountain Technologies, he has designed and implemented 36 composting systems that collectively divert more than 2 million tons of organic waste annually. He holds multiple patents for innovative aeration systems and is widely recognized for his odor control research and feasibility work. Early in his career, he helped start Seattle’s Master Composter program and the Woodland Park Zoo’s ZooDoo composting program.

Sam Wilder (she/her)
Founder, Wilder Environmental Consulting

Sam Wilder has spent nearly 30 years helping communities turn sustainability goals into practice. She founded Wilder Environmental Consulting in 2002 and has since supported thousands of businesses, schools, and multifamily properties in implementing conservation improvements. Through her work, Sam has helped multiple cities and counties design and launch food scrap programs from outreach to measurement. She is certified as a Climate Reality Leader and trained in Community-Based Social Marketing.

Robbette Schmit
General Manager, Winton MFG Compost Works

Robbette has served as General Manager of Winton Compost Works in Leavenworth, WA, since 2001. Since joining Winton, Robbette has built out hauling routes within two WSDA pest jurisdictions, developed commercial composting programs, and led community education on organics recycling.

About the Webinar:

Washington’s newly passed extended producer responsibility (EPR) law for paper and packaging is poised to transform the state’s recycling landscape, but what does it mean for composting and organics recycling systems?

Join us for a timely discussion on the Recycling Reform Act (RRA) and its potential ripple effects across the organics sector. McKenna Morrigan, Solid Waste Policy Lead at Seattle Public Utilities and member of the RRA Advisory Council, will break down what the law means, how it will roll out, and what stakeholders need to know now. Next, Erin Levine of HDR Consultants will bring a national perspective, sharing lessons learned from EPR implementation in other states and what those experiences could signal for Washington. Drawing from her current work on Washington’s Needs Assessment, Erin will explore key opportunities, challenges, and implications for composting and organics recycling programs.

Meet the Speakers:

Erin Levine
Senior Planner – Solid Waste & Organics, HDR, Inc.

Erin Levine has spent 20 years advancing resource recovery in California, including over a decade supporting commercial compost facilities and working with compost end users in agriculture. She previously served as Resource Recovery Manager at World Centric and now consults at HDR on Extended Producer Responsibility programs and organics management strategies. She holds a B.A. from Saint Mary’s College, is a Certified Composting Professional, and recently served on California’s SB 54 Advisory Board helping shape statewide packaging policy.

McKenna Morrigan
Strategic Advisor - Waste Prevention and Solid Waste Policy, Seattle Public Utilities

McKenna Morrigan is a strategic advisor on waste prevention and solid waste policy for Seattle Public Utilities, where she advances state and local policies that support a zero waste, circular economy. She has played a key role in developing Extended Producer Responsibility policies in Washington, including the Recycling Reform Act passed in 2025. Previously, she was a senior associate at Cascadia Consulting Group, leading research and evaluation projects on recycling programs, policies, and markets.

Featuring Rachel Wieme, WSU; James McPhee, McPhee's Butcher Block; and more!

Presenters: Reingard Rieger of Tilth Alliance and Liz Erickson of the City of Vancouver

The May 2025 Webinar is free of charge thanks to the WORC and NW Biosolids Partnership for this event.

This webinar, presented in collaboration with NW Biosolids, offers expert consideration of the current state of PFAS regulations and litigation, and explores developments in PFAS scientific research. Our presenters, Dr. Sally Brown and Jimmy Slaughter, will discuss the impacts of the 2025 EPA draft risk assessment and other guidance on advocating for biosolids utilization while minimizing legal risk.

Presented in collaboration with NW Biosolids

WORC 2024 Annual Conference
November 7, 2024
WSU Puyallup
Event Information

About the Webinar

Presentation Description: Peter will discuss the environmental implications of our food system, including several food waste management systems, through a Life Cycle Assessment lens.

Cost: Individual - $20 WORC Members; $35 Non-Members | Bundle (Includes all webinars and registration for up to 3 members of a single organization) - $60 WORC Members; $160 Non-Members

About the Speaker:

Peter Canepa, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality 

Peter Canepa joined the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s Materials Management Program in January 2017, providing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) expertise.  Peter’s primary role is to conduct and support projects that advance Oregon toward achieving its 2050 vision for materials management, through the application of LCA.  Prior to this role, Peter spent 8 years with Thinkstep, a consultancy specializing in LCA.  Peter holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Science and Management and a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies.

About the Webinar:

The Department of Ecology is implementing the 2022 Organics Management Law. Alli Kingfisher will give a brief overview of the law and then do a deeper dive into the business organics management requirements.

Cost: Individual - $20 WORC Members; $35 Non-Members | Bundle (Includes all webinars and registration for up to 3 members of a single organization) - $60 WORC Members; $160 Non-Members

About the Speaker:

Alli Kingfisher, Washington Department of Ecology

Alli Kingfisher is the Unit Supervisor for Washington State Department of Ecology’s Organics Management Team and the coordinator of the Washington Center for Sustainable Food Management. Alli holds an MSc in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability from the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden. She has 20 years of experience at Ecology working on a wide range of sustainable materials management policies, projects and initiatives. Alli has a passion for working across sectors to find common ground and practicable solutions. 

About the Event:

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), also known as Product Stewardship, is a strategy to place a shared responsibility for end-of-life product management on producers, and other entities involved in the product chain, instead of the general public; while encouraging product design changes that minimize negative impacts on human health and the environment at every stage of the product’s lifecycle. McKenna Morrigan will summarize the 2023 Washington Recycling and Packaging (WRAP) Act which was proposed to establish a producer responsibility program that required consumer product producers to fund statewide residential recycling services for packaging and paper products. Justin Gast will discuss progress in implementing Oregon’s 2021 Recycling Modernization Act which authorized an EPR system to update recycling in Oregon; funded by producers and manufacturers of packaged items, paper products, and food service ware. 

About the Speakers:

McKenna Morrigan, Seattle Public Utilities

McKenna Morrigan is the waste prevention and product stewardship policy advisor for Seattle Public Utilities. In this role, she advocates for state and local policies to advance SPU’s vision of zero waste and support the development of an inclusive circular economy, including the adoption of EPR policies in Washington. Previously, McKenna was a senior associate at Cascadia Consulting Group, where she led research and evaluation projects for local and state governments related to recycling programs, policies, and markets. 

Justin Gast, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

Justin Gast is a natural resources specialist with Oregon DEQ’s Materials Management program, currently working on the implementation of the Recycling Modernization Act (i.e., SB 582), including overseeing the MRF Fees & Permit and Certification Programs project. In addition to his time at DEQ, Justin has spent his 18 years in the industry working at the local and national levels for the likes of Resource Recycling, the Washington County (OR) Solid Waste & Recycling Program and The Recycling Partnership. Justin lives in North Portland with his wife of almost 21 years, Terra, their 22-month old daughter, Birdie, and their seven-year-old goldendoodle, Alice. 

Managing Epidemic Mortalities in Poultry and Livestock with Composting

Over 35 million poultry were composted in the US in 2022. Dr. Carpenter-Boggs will discuss the use of composting to manage livestock mortalities and disease outbreaks including Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.

Speaker: Lynne Carpenter Boggs, WSU 

Dr. Lynne Carpenter-Boggs is a Professor of Soil Science and Director of the Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Agriculture at Washington State University. Her background in soil microbiology, alternative agricultural systems, and livestock mortality composting supported the development of natural organic reduction as a human funeral option.

What Does Safe Look Like?

Description: How does a composting facility go for over 10 years without having an accident or an incident? Are there way to incentivize your team to stay safe? What does accountability look like from a safety perspective? I’ll dive into what we do to keep safety as our number one value and how we pass this passion through leadership changes. How integrity is factored into our safety programs and how the culture drives the results.

Samantha Winkle, Waste Connections 

Bio: Samantha Winkle has over 15 years of experience in the solid waste industry in various roles including office management, environmental compliance, recycling operations, transfer station operations and operating each composting facility within the past 15 years. Samantha started with the construction and eventual redesign of Silver Springs Organics, transferred after 12 years to Purdy Compost Facility then Hidden Valley Compost Factory. Samantha recently became the Assistant District Manager of LRI and Silver Springs Organics and oversees all of our post collections facilities. She is the immediate past president for Washington Organic Recycling Council and currently sits on the board for the United States Composting Council. Samantha leads the Rainier Division Women’s Network and the Rainier Divisions Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work group. She is a graduate from Cornell’s Diversity and Inclusion certification programs and holds a dual Bachelor’s degree from The Evergreen State College. 

Offal: A Not So Awful Feedstock

Presentation Description: Waste disposal options have become increasingly limited, costly, and inconvenient for meat processors in Washington State. Hear from WSDA, Ecology, and two composters about how meat processing feedstock can be clean and manageable, and create a high-quality, nutrient-rich compost product.

Speakers: Alyssa Jumars, WSDA Local Meat Marketing & Capacity Specialist; Martyn Quinn, Ecology Solid Waste Facilities Specialist; Ron Redman, WSU Facilities Assistant Manager; Scott Deatherage, Barr-Tech Regional Compost Facility

Meet the Speakers

Alyssa Jumars, WSDA Local Meat Marketing & Capacity Specialist, is working to strengthen regional meat supply chains in Washington, including finding disposal alternatives and resources for local meat processors who generate animal byproduct (offal) waste. 

Martyn Quinn, Department of Ecology veteran of 15 years, He provides regulatory and technical assistance to 13 counties in Eastern Washington in his role as Solid Waste Facilities Specialist. He has overseen facilities composting yard waste, biosolids, food waste, and animal remains. 

Scott Deatherage, Bart-Tech Regional Compost Facility general manager, grew up farming and composting feedlot manure in Colorado in 1983. Barr-Tech is a fully permitted compost facility receiving all types of organic wastes including yard debris, biosolids, food waste and meat processing waste from regional generators, primarily the City and County of Spokane. 

Ron Redman, WSU Facilities Assistant Manager, oversees operations for the WSU Pullman campus compost facility, general waste collection and disposal, campus recycling, bio waste disposal and Surplus Stores. 

Research to Improve Compost Facility Air Emissions Permitting

Tim O'Neill, Engineered Compost Systems 

Presentation Description:

VOC emissions, and their associated odors, are a critical component in permitting and operating compost facilities in Washington State. Default VOC emission factors adopted by regulators across the US, however, come from a non-systematic collection of widely varying source tests conducted between 2000-2010. In this presentation, Tim O’Neill will describe current research being conducted by Washington State University (WSU) and Engineered Compost Systems (ECS) to develop guidelines for regulators and process designers to predict VOC emission factors from compost facilities, and to better understand the process parameters that affect those emissions.

Bio: Tim founded ECS in 1999 which has provided process technology and consulting to composting facilities around the world.  He leads ECS’s applied research activities on compost process dynamics, degradation of bioplastics during composting, and compost air emissions. Tim is a Trustee for the US Compost Research and Education Foundation and regularly teaches classes on facility design, process optimization and the management of odor and VOC emissions.

About the Event:

Price: $15 Members | $35 Non-Members

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl substances, abbreviated PFAS, are a large group of chemicals, many of which we encounter in our everyday lives. The problem is that these so-called “forever chemicals” never degrade. Discovery that they are now found in recycled organics products like compost and biosolids has led to concern and regulatory changes in some places. Ned Beecher from NEBRA will provide background information about these chemicals, their fate in organics, and some regulatory responses across the U.S. Mary Harrington of Washington Department of Ecology will then discuss Ecology’s response to this issue.  

If you have any questions, please contact Brooke at worc@aminc.org.

Planning on attending all seven webinars? Save on purchasing webinar bundle. Register for the bundle of webinars. Bundle Registration includes 6 webinars and registration for up to 3 staff from a single organization.

About the Speakers:

Ned Beecher, Consultant and Special Projects Manager, NERBA

Ned Beecher is a consultant on biosolids and residuals management. He was director of NEBRA from its founding in December 1997 through May 2019 and has been contracted as Special Projects Manager for NEBRA over the past 3 years, completing the National Biosolids Data Project and the updated biosolids greenhouse gas emissions calculator, BEAM*2022.

Mary Harrington, Organic Materials Management Lead, Washington Department of Ecology

Mary Harrington is the Organic Materials Management Lead for the Washington Department of Ecology (HQ) where she is currently working to improve statewide diversion of all organics to beneficial end uses.

About the Event:

Price: $15 Members | $35 Non-Members

Alison Halpern of WA State Conservation Commission will discuss Organics and climate-smart opportunities through the Sustainable Farms and Fields grant program. This includes subsidy options for growers using compost.

If you have any questions, please contact Melissa at worc@aminc.org.

Planning on attending all seven webinars? Save on purchasing webinar bundle. Register for the bundle of webinars. Bundle Registration includes 6 webinars and registration for up to 3 staff from a single organization.

About the Speaker:

Alison Halpern, Scientific Policy Advisor, Washington State Conservation Commission

Alison joined the Washington State Conservation Commission (SCC) in 2018, where she manages the Sustainable Farms and Fields Program. She came to the SCC after working for the Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board for thirteen years, first as its Education Specialist and then its Executive Secretary. She earned her Ph.D. in Ecology from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY.

About the Event:

Price: $15 Members | $35 Non-Members

We will host 2 virtual facility tours. A1 Organics, a compost facility in Colorado, and Kompogas SLO, a high solids AD facility in California.

If you have any questions, please contact Melissa at worc@aminc.org.

Currently, most organic and food waste ends up in landfills. Not only is this a waste of resources, but as those materials degrade over time, they produce large amounts of methane gas (CH4).

Methane gas is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) and the second most abundant anthropogenic (human influenced) GHG after carbon dioxide (CO2). Methane accounts for about 20 percent of global emissions and is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

The presentation will be about how we can utilize well established and proven technology such as anaerobic digestion to divert organic waste from landfills and use it as a resource to produce renewable energy, while still creating valuable soil amendment in the form of compost.

As an example, we look at the anaerobic digestion facility in San Luis Obispo which has been operating for over 3 years, helping the County reach the state mandated 75% diversion goal. The KOMPOGAS-SLO facility is processing and diverting approximately 36,000 tons per year of the county’s organic food and yard waste streams as well as spent Fats, Oil & Grease (FOG) from restaurants.

It produces enough renewable electricity to power about 600 homes. In addition, the plant produces valuable soil amendment that is marketed to agriculture on the Central Coast.

About the Speakers:

Thomas Gratz, Sales Manager, Hitachi Zosen Inova USA

Thomas Gratz is Sales Manager for Hitachi Zosen Inova USA, responsible for all sales activities of HZI KOMPOGAS and SCHMACK anaerobic digestion systems as well as BIOMETHAN biogas upgrading technologies. Mr. Gratz brings over 30 years of experience in sales and sales management, providing solutions to end users in both the public as well as the private sectors. He has been involved with organic waste diversion and sustainability for over 12 years. His experience includes all aspects of sales and sales management for capital equipment and specialty technology products. He successfully managed the startup of several European Sales Organizations in the US and has a proven track record of implementing advanced new technologies in the US.

Education: BS in Mechanical Engineering, Federal Technical College of Moedling, Austria

Clinton Sander, Marketing Manager, A1 Organics

Clinton joined A1 Organics in July 2018. He worked in the retail natural foods industry creating marketing initiatives, brand campaigns, and innovative merchandising techniques. He is very passionate about regenerative practices, sustainability, family, and giving back to your community. Clinton has seen first-hand the importance and value of diverting organics out of landfills within a commercial retail food environment and the contamination challenges this environment creates. As the marketing manager for A1 Organics, Clinton actively works on marketing initiatives and communication strategies focused on the amazing environmental benefits of compost application and organics recycling. 

Planning on attending all seven webinars? Save on purchasing webinar bundle. Register for the bundle of webinars. Bundle Registration includes 6 webinars and registration for up to 3 staff from a single organization.

Event Cost: Free

About the Event:

The usefulness and value of finished compost depends on a feedstock that is free of contaminants, such as plastic and non-degradable service ware and bags. Unfortunately, it is all too common to find these materials in food waste destined for composting. This webinar, jointly hosted by NERC and NEWMOA, will address successful educational strategies and programs to avoid these contaminants.

About the Presenters:

• Erin Skelly, Environmental & Compliance Technician, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community Organics Recycling Facility, Minnesota - Strategies to Reduce Contamination at a Composting Facility

• Kate Kurtz, Organics and Landscape Resource Conservation Program Lead, & Becca Fong, Residential Recycling and Compost Program Manager, Seattle Public Utilities - Addressing compost contamination in Seattle: a combination of policy and outreach

• Natasha Duarte, Director, Composting Association of Vermont - Navigating compost contamination concerns in Vermont

About the Event:

Price: $15 Members | $35 Non-Members

Deirdre Griffin LaHue of Washington State University will discuss organics and soil health, including updates from the long-term biosolids study in Douglas County, and the newly established Long-term Agroecological Research and Extension (LTARE) site in Mount Vernon through the WA Soil Health Initiative.

If you have any questions, please contact Melissa at worc@aminc.org

About the Speaker:

Deirdre Griffin LaHue, Assistant Professor of Soil Science, WSU

Deirdre Griffin LaHue is an Assistant Professor of Soil Science at WSU. Her research focuses on the impacts of agricultural practices such as cover cropping and organic amendment applications on soil health and the soil organisms that facilitate many of the functions we look for in a healthy soil, including strong aggregate structure, efficient cycling of nutrients and carbon, and disease suppression.

Planning on attending all seven webinars? Save on purchasing webinar bundle. Register for the bundle of webinars. Bundle Registration includes 6 webinars and registration for up to 3 staff from a single organization.