Member News

Member Closeup: Small Business

Duff Brush
Matthew and Kim Duffrin, Owners
630 Seventh St.
Menominee, MN 49858

When did you join USCC and what brought you to our organization?

We joined just before the Annual Convention in Orlando, FL, in 2013. We’ve been making brushes more than 30 years; our focus for USCC is trommel brushes for the recycling / composting industry.

What does your business do?

Duff Brush specializes in manufacturing trommel screen brushes, street sweeper brooms and also metal back strip brushes. We have over 31 years of experience in manufacturing, and we take personal pride in every brush and broom we manufacture.

What role does the USCC play for your business?

We have gotten more exposure across the United States being part of the USCC. When we go to the shows, we get a listing of who’s going. We have several customers who come to visit us at the show. We’ve seen our sales increase, and picked up distributors and customers at the shows. It has benefited us greatly being a member.


Member News

Congratulations to Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency on a special recognition from @Syracuse Grows for Continued Commitment to Community Gardens and Food Justice. Syracuse Grows is a grassroots coalition of individuals, gardens, and community collaborators working to cultivate a just foodscape in the City of Syracuse. The Syracuse Grows organization provides advocacy, programming, education, and resources to support food justice and community development through community gardening and urban agriculture.

Tamara Thomas of Terre-Source, Mount Vernon, WA, says her small firm is still busy helping clients respond to the newly revised (2013) Washington State Department of Ecology Solid Waste regulations. Her firm helps facilities with site design, compliance and permitting, and product quality. The new regulations sent many facilities to their phones looking for advice. “I’ve been just swamped.” she says. “But we’re getting there!” \Visit here for more information about the new Composting Facility standards

CompoKeeper and a composting company made it through several levels in the American Made competition, sponsored by Martha Stewart Living.

Compokeeper is a tool to make composting easy, clean and practical for all homes to help reduce the amount of kitchen scraps and other organic waste. The design is design unlike any others, including foot pedal-activated clamps for opening and closing the compost bag to eliminate odors, messes and fruit flies. Read Compokeeper’s winning profile for the American Made contest.

And the profile for Detroit Dirt (Pashon Murray will be the losing keynote speaker for the Conference):


Half Price Yard Debris Recycling

Deschutes Recycling of Bend, OR encouraged compostable yard cleanup at falls ending, with a special allowing residents to recycle their yard debris at Deschutes Recycling for half price – only $2.00 per cubic yard. The yard debris is recycled into compost and clean energy fuel.

FireFree encourages residents to complete their fall clean up and maintenance of defensible space by bringing branches, leaves, shrubs and pine needles to Deschutes Recycling during this event.

The agency also offered residents 25% off their BioFine®, ReGrow® & SoilBuilder® Compost throughout November.

See Deschutes’ brochure here.


Compostable Bags Manufacturer Member Offers Bags to be Tested in Member Facilities

Cardiabioplastics, of Blaine, WA, is a member that produces “GMO free” corn based Bio-Plastic bags, which are ASTM6400 certified and made in an ISO 9001 facility for quality and consistency. Business development manager Dianne Seghesio say s the bags can be brightly colored and branded for compost sites so our compostable bags are not confused with any other “plastic bags”.

“It is my hope that compostable bags can be .” We are hoping to work with hospitals, schools, jails and other facilities that can use our larger bags in their own compost facilities.”

She says they can send both the compostable and Biohybrid bag samples, which are are a mixture of Thermoplastic Starch Polyethylene, which will reduce the carbon footprint and allow bags to be recycled instead of composted. Contact Dianne at D.seghesio@cardiabioplastics.com.


Cayuga Compost -A Part of the Community

Cayuga Compost, a member from Trumansburg, NY, spends a lot of time in the community. Bobby Seymour, compost operations and marketing manager gave a presentation to the children at St. Paul’s Nursery School, because the company feels it is important to include children in efforts to protect and restore the environment by composting.

They also encourage volunteer participation. Ally, Jessica and Kelly Proctor have been volunteering their weekend time to help clean up the Cayuga Compost Site. They have been screening compost, picking rocks and removing contamination.


USCC Staff News

Planning 2014-2015

USCC Staff held their annual retreat for strategic planning for the organization in August. Some of the big topics were strategies to carry forward the results of the membership survey (more advocacy and consumer education were two of the top priorities); how to increase the growth of partnerships with allied groups; and the integration of a new membership database to better serve members. USCC Vice President Rod Tyler also attended to provide Board of Directors perspective.

Trade Shows and Outreach

Fall was a time for outreach as board members and staff carried USCC out to allied organizations and events.

Lorrie Loder, president, represented USCC at both Soil in the City, a conference for partner the Soil Science Society of America, and MAB, Mid-Atlantic Biosolids,  where she was a speaker.

Acting Executive Director Al Rattie and Patrick Geraty, USCC Board member and treasurer, represented USCC at Wastecon in September, where they also networked to find conference partners.

Emily Kahn of Green Fern Events, conference manager for COMPOST2015, attended Texas Compost Camp for a full day in September and represented USCC.


Restructuring Update: Fall 2014

The USCC Board of Directors appointed a Transition Committee to develop a comprehensive restructuring plan for the USCC. The Committee includes USCC Board members, staff and other stakeholders, and has been meeting every other week since its inception in J uly. “The USCC has experienced significant growth and change in recent years, and it’s time that we took a fresh look at how we do business,” said Lorrie Loder, USCC President. The Committee is reviewing roles and expectations of its staff and leadership, and evaluating several options to determine the best way to operate moving forward.
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