Federal Proposal – Compost Act 2021
Sophia Jones and Brenda Platt of Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR) recently wrote about a new proposal for a federal policy on composting.
The COMPOST act lays out what composting is and gives steps on how to enable and fund increased compost management on multiple levels including at homes, on farms, small businesses, and through diversion away from landfills to composting facilities at the local county/city level. It includes a funding proposal of $2 billion over 10 years. Funding would go toward grants and loans that would help get more composting sites implemented nationwide.
The COMPOST act (a fun backronym for “Cultivating Organic Matter through the Promotion of Sustainable Techniques”) was introduced by Congresswoman Julia Brownley of California and co-sponsored by congressmembers Chellie Pingree of Maine, Ann Kuster of New Hampshire and Scott Peters of California.
The US Composting Infrastructure Coalition (USCIC) helped develop the bill, of which ILSR is a member.
The point of the bill is to help keep federal policy on track to reach net-zero emissions goals by 2050. This bill was one of a host of complimentary/companion bills related in Jones’s and Platt’s article.
For more about the COMPOST act, here’s the original article by Sophia Jones and Brenda Platt.
To support the bill, USCIC has provided this link that allows you to directly contact your legislators.
To read the bill, here’s a pdf posted by Julia Brownley’s office.
Featured Image Photo Credit: ILSR.org
