US Composting Council announces annual award winners

During its annual conference, Compost2023 held in Ontario, California, the US Composting Council (USCC) recognized several organizations, including a southern California curbside recycling program raising awareness around composting issues, the only residential food scrap composting infrastructure in Northern Colorado, an upstate New York municipality and a Santa Cruz program cultivating garden-based education, at its prestigious annual awards program.

The first of four USCC achievement awards—the Organics Diversion Program of the Year Award—went to the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation of Encinitas, California, which pioneered the first comprehensive curbside recycling program in southern California and one of the first community-based recycling programs in the nation. For more than 20 years, the Solana Center has been teaching composting and siting operations from residential to community composting. Their Master Composter Course students often describe the training as life-changing, and they go on to share their newly acquired knowledge within their own spheres of influence. 

The Large-Scale Compost Manufacturer of the Year Award goes to a commercial-scale U.S. composting facility that produces more than 10,000 tons of compost annually. This public or private facility displays excellence in compost production, marketing and distribution. The winner must have been in operation for a minimum of three years. This year’s award went to Napa Recycling & Composting Facility, which is part of Napa County Recycling and Waste Services. In 2020, the facility composted 63,590 tons and now serves as a model program for organics management. Napa’s composting system provides a high degree of process control, enabling rapid stabilization and low odors. 

The Small-Scale Composter Manufacturer of the Year Award, given to facilities producing 10,000 tons or fewer, went to Compost Queen of Fort Collins, Colorado, owned and operated by Jamie Blanchard-Poling. She has built the only residential food scrap composting infrastructure in northern Colorado, providing diversion opportunities in a rapidly growing community. With her Microsite Urban Community Composting model that relies on a network of distributed conditionally exempt small quantity generator facilities, she has been able to divert more than 150,000 pounds of food scraps from the local landfill, which is set to close at the end of 2024.

The H. Clark Gregory Award recognizes public outreach as well as outstanding grassroots efforts to promote composting. This year’s award went to Whitney Cohen, education director at Life Lab. Santa Cruz, California-based Life Lab, originally Life Lab Science Project, has long been a force in the school garden and garden-based learning movements. Life Lab’s mission is to “cultivate children’s love of learning, healthy food and nature through garden-based education.” It accomplishes this through local and national programs annually reaching more than 6,000 kindergarten to fifth-grade students in garden classrooms and programs at 17 partner school sites across three school districts, as well as through field trips and summer programs at two farm-based educational gardens with award-winning curricula.

The Hi Kellogg Award goes to individuals who provided outstanding service to the composting industry. This year’s recipient of the Hi Kellogg Award is A1 Organics Vice President and Chief Technical Officer Bob Yost of A1 Organics, Eaton, Colorado. Yost’s accomplishments and recognition within the industry over 30 years demonstrate his compassion and caring. He is always willing to lend a hand and advise others getting started in the field. He believes and lives by the truth that it is better to give than receive and better to serve rather than to be served.

The Jerome Goldstein Award is named after the founder of Emmaus, Pennsylvania-based BioCycle, which helped to foster today’s composting industry. It recognizes those who achieve excellence in their field of study and honors those who have made significant contributions over their professional career in the field of environmental stewardship and natural resource sustainability. This year’s recipient is Jeff Gage, director of consulting at Green Mountain Technologies, Bainbridge Island, Washington. He has been working in composting for more than 35 years and is a USCC Certified Composting Operations Manager and holds numerous composting patents. While living overseas in five countries, Gage has been supporting our U.S. embassies’ Green Team programs, organizing composting for on-site food services and supporting the host countries’ efforts to develop regional composting programs.

The USCC Volunteer of the Year Award is the only award voted on by USCC staff. Ryan Cooper is this year’s recipient. Cooper is chair of the USCC Membership Committee. He also sits on the Target Organics Committee, the Compost Awareness Task Force, the Finance Committee and serves as USCC’s board secretary. 

Board service awards went to Joe DiNorscia and Yost. DiNorscia of Landenberg, Pennsylvania-based Laurel Valley Soils served two terms on the board. As past Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee, DiNorscia was instrumental recommended changes in the financial structure and policy of the USCC. Yost also served two terms on the board during which he served on the Market Development Committee, the Finance Committee, the Membership Committee, the Legislative & Environmental Affairs Committee, and, most recently, chaired the STA Advisory Committee. 

Finally, the USCC’s Distinguished Service Award went to Cary Oshins, on the occasion of his retirement. The award recognizes Oshins’ dedication and years of loyal service to the USCC, the Compost Foundation and the industry. 

Awardees are nominated by peers and honored each year at the US Composting Council’s annual conference and trade show.