Compost Law
The legal life of compost is more interesting than you have probably ever imagined! Diverse laws apply to every stage of the composting process, and they are changing rapidly.
The following resources are designed to help sort out the many layers of legislation and regulation based on the step by step activities involved to make compost. Our goal is to help everyday people understand the basics so that they can better interact with agencies overseeing the compost industry, to identify barriers to small-scale solutions, and to empower people to help shape compost laws as they evolve.
Learn more about how laws are shaping the compost industry.
As part of our Community Compost Law & Policy Project, ILSR and The Law Center are collaborating to provide community composters with opportunities to share knowledge, discuss best practices, and strategize around legal and policy issues confronting community composting.
Or let “Carrot Top” help you research laws in your own community.
1. Generators
Food waste and landfill diversion mandates are compost policy initiatives designed to reduce the amount of overall solid waste material that communities generate, to source separate it by type, and to reuse/recycle as much as possible.
State and local waste management laws govern where and how generators, such as food facilities, restaurants, grocery stores, residents, and farmers markets can discard material, and may govern how food scraps can be stored while awaiting pick-up. Local laws also govern the use of compost dumpsters and curbside bins, and some "waste receptacles" need to be licensed. Generators may be able to apply for “self-hauling” or “on-site recycling” exemptions for compostables.
Most municipal codes and land use and planning ordinances (aka “municode”) concerning solid waste are online, making it easy to do a keyword search for all things related to “compost.”
2. Haulers
Compost haulers are governed by both local and state law. At the local level, you may need a license to operate a hauling business and may even need to obtain special permits for each of your vehicles. At the state level, state health and safety laws may regulate the type of transportation used to haul material.
Regulations allowing individuals, businesses, worker cooperatives, and non-profit groups to transport food waste from the point of generation to the point of processing is decided by each jurisdiction, and state laws cannot require counties and cities to provide exemptions to small-scale haulers.
You’ll likely have to look in many places to research local hauling contracts: your local codes, city department websites, news articles, …maybe even lawsuits and city council meeting minutes!
3. Facilities
Stand-alone compost operations are subject to state facility permitting processes and local zoning ordinances, which may both require special use permits for compost facilities or prohibit them in certain zones. In some cases, composting can be considered an "accessory use" activity to a particular site and is therefore permissible. Transfer stations, which are centralized collection sites that facilitate hauling longer distances, also require permits.
Local and regional air, water, nuisance control, and fire regulations may also address compost facilities.
Sometimes, these laws have clear exemptions for small-scale activities or specific composting methodologies, like for vermicomposting! Other times, the environmental impact reviews, inspections, and fees these regulations require are far too burdensome for small-scale composters to justify the expenses.
4. Products
Federal and state laws govern the sale and distribution of fertilizer and soil amendments, require quality assurance testing, and require licensing for all compost label claims.
These laws also define and give each type of compost and fertilizer a "grade" based on its input materials and processing, which determines how the final product can be applied and used on land.
State and local agencies often have grant, loan, and technical assistance programs to encourage the application of compost on farm and rangelands to improve soil and water quality, and to help sequester carbon from the atmosphere.
The Association of American Plant Food Control Officials (AAPFCO) is a national organization of state Department of Agriculture officials who uniformly regulate the sale of fertilizers, soil amendments, and bulking agents.
Read our legal guide.
We mapped the laws for community composting in our own backyard to serve as a resource for local composters in Alameda County, California. This guide summarizes what we unearthed. How does it compare to your community?
Compost law protects communities and helps them plan.
Start by dividing your legal research into two major categories based on the goal. First, there are many laws designed to protect communities, air, and water from potential nuisances or pollution that could result from poorly managed compost operations. Second, there are laws designed to help communities plan for scaling-up composting. Both the protective laws and planning processes can pose compliance barriers for small-scale and community-based operations, mainly because the trend is for state and local agencies to create regulations with only larger, industrial solutions in mind.
(Image credit: NYC Compost Project site at Queensbridge taken by Sustainable Generation)
Protection Laws:
Ordinances, codes, and enforcement rules that protect against air/water pollution, odors, pests, fire, nuisance compost piles or facilities, threats to public health, traffic, and inaccurate labeling.
These policies are important for managing compost production and compost quality, but the associated permitting, inspections, testing, and fees are often too burdensome for small-scale composters to overcome without tiered levels of enforcement or exemptions.
Planning laws:
Legislation, regulations, and programs aiming to divert organic materials from landfills, reduce methane emissions, streamline compost hauling and processing, and improve soil health.
These policies are headed in both the right and wrong directions, because the trend is for top-down planning to look for large-scale, high-impact solutions, but often at the expense of supporting a more diversified and local compost industry.