When I read this Grist story, last week, about toxins in commercial and municipal compost, I was deeply discouraged.
Though I’d like to make my own compost on my property, I’m not set up for it, yet, so I compost all my yard and kitchen waste (except meat and dairy) in my curbside yard waste bin.
It’s trucked off to Cedar Grove Composting in Everett.
Then I take a special pride in closing the proverbial loop by purchasing bulk Cedar Grove compost in the spring. (I always wonder if I’m putting my recycled veggie waste in the yard along with everyone else’s.)
So do I have to worry what else is in there now?
No, according to Susan Thoman, the director of corporate business development for Cedar Grove.
Thoman said pesticide contamination concerns haven’t been a problem here in recent years.
And that’s not by accident or because of luck, she said.
Cedar Grove, because its very existence depends on it, is careful to control what makes its way into its so-called feed stocks, the food waste and yard debris residents and businesses send to Everett and Maple Valley to be made into the gardening black gold that is compost.
“We are always conservative about what we take in for compost feed stocks for the very reason brought forth in this article,” Thoman said in an email. “And although there are a number of programs in the U.S. where concerns are being raised about the regulation and oversight of commercial composting facilities, our state has been regulating composters for product quality and potential metals and toxins since 2004 in large part due to the voluntary and collaborative work between WDOE (Washington Department of Ecology) and regional composting facilities like Cedar Grove.”
Two herbicides known to persist in compost include clopyralid, banned in recent years as a lawn herbicide to protect compost, and Imprelis, a new DuPont herbicide for lawns, also mentioned in the Grist article.
DuPont warns against using Imprelis-treated grass clippings for compost because of this side effect. According to its website: “Grass clippings must either be left on the treated area, or, if allowed by local yard waste regulations, disposed of in the trash.”
Why would DuPont create a product saddled with such a huge environmental problem? Why would they mess with tilth?
Well, there are other ecological benefits.
Imprelis, according to DuPont’s website, offers excellent weed control in lawns (yay) as well as low toxicity to mammals (double yay), low application rates (good, good, if used correctly) and no impact on re-seeding (yay).
Could that mean better lawns (that holy grail) and less risk of cancer among kids who run around on chemically treated grass?
It might.
It seems there are no easy answers in the world of green living.
Every time a chemical is banned or shunned, it is replaced by something more complicated, sometimes better, but often potentially worse, depending on how it’s used. (See the BPA and strawberry herbicide backstories for insight into that issue.)
Cedar Grove is on top of the Imprelis issue, said Cedar Grove vice president and co-owner Jerry Bartlett.
In an email this morning, he said: “Since the product is not available to homeowners at this point, only professionals, we have reached out to those people, warning them not to buy the product. It sounds like most of the application industry is not willing to buy the product since it has similar issues to clopyralid, which they all remember. Our goal in the next few weeks is to participate with all the stakeholders to see what can be done about restricting certain uses, like clopyralid. That means only a ban for certain applications, not a total ban.”
All this made me feel better.
Someone is paying attention, at least.
And that’s always a good sign when the environment and human health are concerned.
To see results from Cedar Grove’s monthly chemical composition tests (conducted by a lab in California and required by state law), click here.
See Cedar Grove’s FAQ page about safety here.
Send your questions about Cedar Grove compost to info@cgcompost.com.
If you worry you’ve purchased contaminated compost, this website offers an easy comparison test you can do at home to see if that is the case or if you have a pest or disease issue instead.
What do you think about this?
Write me here or comment below.
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