Composters embrace Quality Protocol

According to the Association for Organics Recycling (AFOR) membership of its certification scheme has grown from 105 to 158 since the protocol – which defines the point at which compost can be classified as a product – came into force last year.

The news came as AFOR also revealed that the CQP had now also been “approved” by the Technical Standards Committee of the European Commission. This process checks that the document does not have the potential to create a technical barrier to trade.

A spokeswoman for AFOR said the rise in membership showed that the sector was embracing the self-regulation offered by the CQP. The membership level means that the amount of biowaste which has been composted to AFOR's certifiable standard has risen from 1.7 million to 2.8 million tonnes.

Jeremy Jacobs, acting chief executive of AFOR, said: “We are delighted with the industry's swift moves towards implementing the CQP's requirements and increasing the supply of high quality compost products.”

The spokeswoman also pointed out that the EC approval of the CQP, which took place two weeks ago, means it is in-line with European regulations on compost and allows CQP members to trade their product with other members of the EC. She explained that the CQP document “does not have the potential to create a technical barrier to trade”, and therefore works in conjunction with other EC legislation on compost.

Martin Brocklehurst, head of environment protection external programmes at the Environment Agency (EA), added: “We have worked with industry to remove the uncertainty surrounding the end of waste. This is a leading example of how to apply the principles of proportionate risk based regulation and allow us to focus resources on higher risk waste activities.”

Product

The CQP officially came into force during Compost Awareness Week in May 2007. It was drawn up by AFOR with the EA and WRAP to help define compost produced from biowaste as a 'product' and not a 'waste'.

The Protocol was originally published in March 2007, but composters were given until May to decide if they wanted to comply with the new certification and join the scheme. When the CQP was first published some in the sector were concerned about the additional auditing, record-keeping and soil-testing it required (see letsrecycle.com story).

A spokeswoman for AFOR said the CQP was necessary because markets perceived biowaste-derived composts as 'waste' and believed them to be “poor quality and low value”.

She explained that the PAS 100 certification scheme, which started in 2002 and was updated in 2005, had enabled producers to prove their composts were good quality and could command a higher price.

However, in England and Wales, composts derived from controlled biowastes remained ‘waste' in law and the required waste management licence exemptions for spreading them on land which involved significant red tape and costs. The CQP was created to help reduce this red tape.

Thanks to the introduction of the CQP, compost made with controlled biowastes, by producers who are certified under the scheme, no longer require waste regulatory controls for supply storage or use.

Dr Richard Swannell, director of organics and retail at WRAP, commented: “This is encouraging industry to focus on producing quality compost products to the benefit of their customers and the wider environment.”