In this episode 8 of The Composter, I sit down with Justen Garrity from Veteran Compost and Caroline Barry from Closed Loop Partners for a wide-ranging conversation about where the composting industry is right now and where it’s headed next.

A big thread running through this conversation is Extended Producer Responsibility or EPR (no, I hadn’t heard of this before either!) and why it matters so much for composters to be part of these EPR policy discussions early and often. We dig into the realities of de-packaging, the challenges of scaling a composting business, and the mix of grants, loans, and other funding tools that can help move growth forward.

Justen Garrity founded Veteran Compost in 2010 after struggling to find work when he came back from Iraq. The tough job market turned out to be the perfect catalyst for starting up a Veteran run compost operation. Justen shares insights about the Veteran Compost operation in Maryland and Virginia. He’s also a shining example of compost policy activism.

Caroline Barry is Senior Program Manager at The Closed Loop Center for the Circular Economy, an innovation firm helping businesses solve their most pressing material challenges. She leads the Composting Consortium; an industry collaboration advancing U.S. composting infrastructure and recovery of food scraps & compostable packaging. In this chat Caroline brings a broad systems-level perspective on expanding food scrap composting infrastructure nationwide.

Check out Veteran Compost (👊) at https://www.veterancompost.com/

The Closed Loop Center's new website: https://closedloopcenter.com/

A link to the Composting Consortium's new EPR report: https://closedloopcenter.com/reports/designing-an-epr-framework-to-include-compostable-packaging-recovery

And here is a link to the webinar from Justen on Certified Compostable Products from NERC: https://www.nerc.org/certified-compostable-products--perspectives

Thank you to our Show sponsors:

Compost Systems of Austria: https://www.compost-systems.com/en

Agrilab Technologies: www.agrilabtech.com/podcast

And Closed Loop: https://closedloopcenter.com/

Merch:

https://www.earthcarefarm.com/store/c3/Clothing.html

Contact:

Host Jayne Merner can be reached at [email protected] or through instagram @composterpodcast