Compost Industry Pioneers, Longtime Researchers Among Awardees Being Recognized at USCC’s COMPOST2016

Bethesda, MD (Jan. 2, 2016) –Two New England state pioneering compost regulation pioneers compost regulators and a researcher with a lifetime spent studying the science of biosolids composting are among those who will be honored by their peers by the US Composting Council at the upcoming January 27 awards celebration.

Awardees are nominated by peers and honored each year at the US Composting Council’s Annual Conference and Tradeshow. This year’s program will be held at the Hyatt Regency Riverfront during the Closing Plenary on January 27, 2016 at 4:30 p.m.

Composter of the Year will be awarded to the Rockland County (NY) Solid Waste Management Authority, which has co-composted 400,000 tons of biosolids and 200,000 tons of yard trim since 1999, consistently producing Class A, Seal of Testing Assurance certified compost.

The Jerome Goldstein Lifetime Award, one of the USCC’s highest recognitions, is given to an individual who has achieved excellence in their field of study and who has made significant contributions to the field of environmental stewardship and natural resource sustainability in his or her lifetime. This year’s winner, Rufus Chaney, is a USDA research agronomist, has spent 33 years in crop and soil science, published numerous paper and abstracts and advised federal agencies and states on regulations on biosolids and contaminated soils.

The Rufus Chaney Award will go to K.C. Das, of the University of Georgia Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, who over his 20-year career has worked extensively providing design, process control methods, odor control and composting technology transfer to municipalities and private companies all over the USA.

K.C. Alexander and Sumner Martinson of the CT/DEEP/MA-DEP programs will jointly receive the Hi Kellogg Award, for outstanding service to the composting industry. KC and Sumner were leaders of the compost industry and organics recycling in the pioneering states of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Their initiatives led to the adoption and expansion of organics recycling programs in other states, with an eventual impact on the entire industry.

The H. Clark Gregory Award, which recognizes grassroots education and awareness of composting, will be given to Christine Datz-Romero, director of the Lower East Side Ecology Center. For more than 20 years, she has played a key leadership role in New York City’s thriving community-based composting movement. In 1994 she began New York City’s first farmer’s market-based food scrap drop-off site at the Union Square Greenmarket, where residents can now bring food scraps four days a week for composting at the East River Park Compost Site.

Texas State University’s Bobcat Blend Composting Program, San Marcos, TX, , will be honored with the Composting Program of the Year award recognizing composters of less than 10,000 tons of feedstock. The student-run, grant-funded program collected and composted organics from cafeterias and programs across the campus as well as organic material from groundskeeping and other maintenance. The program also educates the campus and surrounding community and offers food scrap drop-offs.

For more information or to attend, go to www.old.compostingcouncil.org/awards or contact Samantha Stallybrass, education coordinator; for information about the Conference and Tradeshow, go to www.old.compostingcouncil.org/COMPOST2016.