Vermont’s growing composting industry has made headlines recently with troubles at Intervale Compost in Burlington.
Leachate and other run-off from the composting prompted Agency of Natural Resources Secretary George Crombie to say the intervale might not be the proper site for an operation of its size.
But, as composting grows in the state, advocates say there needs to be more clarity about how to regulate it.
The Composting Association of Vermont wants to study the issue and create recommendations about changes to the rules. Tom Gilbert is the Vice President of the CAV. He’s also the program director of the Highfields Institute. That’s a Hardwick non-profit that promotes on farm composting and soil quality.
He says the popular kind of backyard composting people do at home isn’t very different in theory from large farm composters but in practice it’s a different story: