Matt Driscoll: A law to make WA greener is coming. A compost facility could arrive in your city soon.

Michael Houseman never envisioned a future in compost. He’s the kind of guy who wears a beard, a comfortable hoodie and a Tacoma Rainiers cap. He comes home from work dirty, and it suits him; he has no qualms. But the career path he’s taken was discovered by chance, not fate.

About a decade ago, Houseman, now 33, needed a job – like a lot of folks. He grew up in this neck of the woods and found one at the Silver Springs Organics composting facility in Thurston County. He was initially hired on as a laborer, only a few years out of high school.

When Houseman started, he was tasked with keeping the equipment in order and the facility clean, he recently told me. Mostly, he pushed a broom and sprayed hoses.

Today, Houseman works for the same multinational corporation: Waste Connections. But his title is longer and more official.

He’s the operations manager at the Hidden Valley compost site, in charge of another one of Waste Connections’ organic waste recycling centers in Pierce County.

Hidden Valley annually produces 60,000 yards of compost from a warehouse-like facility on South Hill. It’s on the 100-acre LRI transfer station property, tucked between strip malls and new housing developments along Meridian – out towards Graham

For this column, however, here’s all you need to know about Houseman:

When state lawmakers in Olympia get big ideas and pass sweeping environmental regulations – shepherded through during lightning-quick legislative sessions with the best intentions – he’s the kind of guy whose lap they often land on, whether he’s looking for a new challenge or not.

That’s exactly what’s coming in January, when new business organics recycling regulations included in Washington’s 2022 Organics Management Law begin to kick into gear.

The law, and the host of other eco-friendly regulations the legislation includes, is designed to cut the amount of organic materials that end up in state landfills and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

As of next month businesses across the central Puget Sound region will be required to have compostable organic material picked up and recycled under the new law – if they produce at least eight cubic yards of organic waste every week and are located in designated areas mostly between Whatcom and Thurston County, and almost all of Pierce County.

Initially, the number of businesses impacted by the rules is expected to be small, but it’s only the start. In the coming years, the regulations will ratchet up.

By 2026, they will apply to any business producing at least four cubic yards of solid waste per week, a total that includes regular trash and compostable waste.

The number of businesses required to participate is expected to increase significantly.

When the day comes? Rest assured, Houseman will be ready. That’s his job.

From just outside the massive Hidden Valley composting facility, Houseman told me last week that the state’s new regulations make sense because keeping organic material out of landfills is important and addressing climate change is urgent.

Still, what it will take to achieve the state’s lofty goals– which include a 20% reduction in the amount of organic material that ends up in landfills by 2030 – isn’t as simple as some politicians and policymakers have suggested, Houseman told me.

“Think about how things happen in nature. Leaves fall off the ground and they eventually decompose and turn into dirt. We’re just imitating that same process – taking raw yard waste and organic materials – and forcing them to start decomposing, faster than it would normally happen,” said Houseman, who has served on the Washington Organic Recycling Council’s board of directors in recent years.

“Food waste is very acidic, so that’s one of the main challenges we’ll have, making sure that our pH and everything aligns with the increased food waste,” he added. “The other challenge will be playing with the controls and how we compost … to make sure that food waste isn’t adversely affecting our finished compost.”

The most important takeaway for residents across the region, including Pierce County, is a big one.

“In my opinion, there will need to be more composting facilities,” Houseman said.

“Just to be able to handle the amount of food waste we might see.”

The recipe

Making compost is tricky, requiring space, time and a precise mix of biodegradable materials.

To see what it takes, I toured the Hidden Valley compost facility, a damp and cavernous structure where the vast majority of Pierce County’s yard waste collected outside of Tacoma eventually ends up.

You can’t just speed it up or throw in a bunch of extra coffee filters and banana peels and call it good, Houseman explained as we passed row after row of fresh compost inside the dank and humid facility, each at different stages of the delicate process.

The bulk of the product comes from the yard waste that arrives at the facility, Houseman told me. Each year, the Hidden Valley compost facility – which is about three acres in size – is capable of processing upwards of 100,000 tons of it, much of it dropped off by truckload by area landscapers and yard enthusiasts.

Under the subsidiary LRI, Waste Connections processes a similar amount at its Silver Springs facility near Rainier. The company is also contracted to operate Pierce County’s compost facility, located at the Purdy Transfer Station on the other side of the Narrows.

Particularly during the spring and summer months, when the inbound yard waste spikes, the facility hums at capacity, Houseman explained. At other times, the amount of branches and grass clippings is light.

The recipe for quality compost remains the same, Houseman said.

The mix calls for roughly 5% food waste, give or take – but not much more.

The biodegrading piles are kept at 131 degrees Fahrenheit, moved and turned throughout the process with massive backhoes.

“This stuff right here is very new; it’s probably only two days old,” Houseman said, resting his boot at the base of the first big pile we came to.

“As you get down to the end there, it’s going to end up being 21 days that it sits in active composting.,” he continued. “Then we move into a curing section where it will sit for another 10 to 15 days, to stabilize and cool down before we screen it.”

The economics

The precise nature of the recipe for good compost is one of many things that makes preparing for the coming changes to state organic recycling regulations so delicate.

If you increase an ingredient or alter a variable, the whole calculation changes, Houseman said, and you have to start from scratch. Given the strict timing, the windows are tight, he told me, and the financials must pencil out.

At the Hidden Valley facility, the compost-making process generally takes 35 days, start to finish.

If the final product sits too long, it dries out. And if it’s not picked up within approximately 48 hours once it’s ready, Hidden Valley quickly runs out of space, Houseman said. If more food waste is added to the mix – particularly if it includes things like biodegradable tableware and containers – the whole thing takes a lot longer, Houseman explained.

Then there’s the other looming variable: the demands of capitalism.

Washington’s statewide garbage, recycling and compost system increasingly relies heavily on the private market and companies like Waste Connections.

Not long ago, it was LeMay and Murrey’s Disposal – two smaller, locally owned companies – tasked with collecting and hauling trash and other waste in much of Pierce County. Waste Connections, which owns and operates waste facilities across the United States and Canada, now owns both.

The company has the size and financial backing necessary to expand to demand and make investments in its facilities, said Kevin Green, an LRI district manager.

The business also requires a profit.

When it comes to compost, facilities like Hidden Valley must have willing customers lined up for their product, Green said. Right now, Corliss Resources, a local company located nearby that deals in compost, concrete and other building materials, purchases all of the compost produced at the facility.

With all of this in mind, Green told me last week there are more questions than answers.

He has no idea how many businesses will be required to comply initially or in the future, how much organic waste is actually being produced in Pierce County, or how the pieces will fit together in the end, he said. Meanwhile, the Jan. 1 implementation date of the state’s organics management law is looming.

“We’ll just have to kind of ride the wave,” Green told me.

“We’re only going to figure it out as time goes on.”

The unknowns

Green isn’t alone in uncertainty.

Keith Johnson, who works in the waste management and solid waste division at Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, said that local agencies will likely be tasked with enforcement of the new regulation and outreach to ensure local compliance.

The state’s new organics management law suggests as much, Johnston indicated, but it’s not explicit. Not much about the new law is, he indicated.

As diplomatically as possible, Johnston described the state’s new regulations as an unfunded mandate, delivered by state lawmakers and bureaucrats with scant details, direction and resources.

“There’s a lot to this organics management rule … and I don’t think folks really realize how much work it’s actually going to be,” Johnston told me.

“We’re kind of taking a wait-and-see approach, and not planning on doing any enforcement as of Jan. 1.”

According to Dave Bennett, a communications manager with the Department of Ecology’s solid waste management program, the agency is actively working with local businesses and public agencies to help people understand the new regulations – and what they’ll mean.

Bennett acknowledged there are “challenges in implementing this law for both state and local governments,” but said the state and the Department of Ecology are committed to the effort.

“We’re here to provide guidance and technical assistance, and we’re continuing to do that. We’re working on more resources to help health departments educate businesses about the requirements and support their outreach efforts,” Bennett said.

“We recognize that there are these concerns out there,” he added.

“We’re doing our best to help our local partners and ensure that we’re all working to implement the law and move the state towards better organics management.”

The demand

There is one thing that most in the garbage, recycling and compost business seem to agree on.

Meeting the state’s new organic composting regulations will require a massive financial investment and the construction of large composting facilities across the Puget Sound region, they say, echoing the assessment Houseman provided.

Whether the forecast is accurate remains to be seen, of course; not everyone is certain, which is why the state’s organics management law includes provisions designed to figure it out.

Brad Lovaas, the executive director of the Washington Refuse and Recycling Association, has little doubt, he told me last week.

Citing an industry study conducted by an engineering and lobbying firm based in Sacramento, Lovaas told The News Tribune Washington will likely need as many as 50 or 60 new composting facilities.

Most of them will need to be sited and permitted in the Puget Sound region, near population centers, Lovaas indicated, helping to reduce trucking costs and exhaust emissions and help the proposition pencil out for the waste collection companies he represents.

In total, building the facilities and capacity necessary to meet the growing demand will likely require an investment in the ballpark of $1 billion, said Brad Lovaas, the executive director of the Washington Refuse and Recycling Association.

“This is important work as we continue to divert materials from the landfill and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Lovaas said. “But in order to be successful over the coming decades we’ll need to work together through the challenges of siting facilities, building out additional infrastructure and supporting significant investments.”

According to Samantha Winkle, an assistant district supervisor at LRI, constructing new organic composting facilities is challenging.

In addition to local zoning requirements that limit where a new operation can be located, finding the right location is paramount, she said.

You need enough space. There can be smells to contend with, as South Hill residents who live by the LRI landfill at 30919 Meridian Ave. E. know well.

Nearby neighbors and businesses can balk at the idea, particularly at first, Winkle said.

As an example, Winkle said that LRI and Waste Connections have been working on a project that will eventually build a composting facility capable of processing roughly 180,000 tons of organic waste every year on 90 acres the company purchased in Lewis County.

The effort has so far stretched roughly six years, Winkle told me.

There are still details to work out, she indicated.

“It’s been very difficult,” Winkle said. “We had to rezone, but you also have to consider where all the waste comes from.”

“If you get too far out, you have to think about trucking,” she added.

Alli Kingfisher, a unit supervisor with the Department of Ecology’s organics and food waste team, isn’t certain there will be a need for dozens of new composting facilities across the state and region.

It’s too early to tell, she said.

As part of the implementation of the state’s new organics management law, the Department of Ecology established maps and boundaries that spell out where the new composting regulations will be applied.

Only parts of Washington that already have access to year-round curbside organic collection and local facilities with available capacity were included, Kingfisher explained.

Whether new composting facilities will be required is one of many unknowns, she indicated.

“Looking at capacity of facilities is something we are actively looking at right now,” Kingfisher said.

“I don’t have a clear answer for you at this point.”

Back at Hidden Valley, Houseman and Green told me the facility is often maxed out.

As we spoke, trucks continued to roll in and the massive piles of compost steamed in the wet winter air.

“Food waste and yard waste cause a lot of emissions in a landfill, a lot of greenhouse gases. Keeping it out for that reason alone is important. It also saves valuable space in our landfills,” Houseman told me.

“Right now, there’s a lot of speculation. No one knows how much more food waste will come in,” he added.

“It’s about doing the right thing. We’ll just have to figure it out as we go.”