Critical goals are achieved when food scraps, manure, and other organic materials are removed from the waste stream and transformed into compost. Composting operations benefit the environment, create jobs, produce important agricultural inputs, and provide community services. When organic materials are diverted from landfills, where they would emit potent greenhouse gases, carbon emissions are avoided. In addition, converting this “waste product” into high-quality compost for use on Vermont land provides farmers with a valuable material that builds soil health and improves water quality (see Water Quality brief). Vermont’s Universal Recycling Law (URL) provides a framework for pursuing organics resource management goals, but more work remains to build an ecologically efficient and economically sustainable model for localized, decentralized composting.
Read the brief in full on the website here, or download a pdf copy by clicking the "Get Resource" button below.