Rural Vermont Testifies in support of H. 501

Rural Vermont provided testimony (watch recording below) today with Peter Blair from CLF for the Protect Our Soils Coalition in support of H. 501 - a bill that aims to protect our soils from microplastics by regulating depackaging technology and avoiding the land application of slurries and digestates derived from this technology. Depackaging involves mechanically separating food residuals from their packaging through crushing, grinding and screening, which is much more likely to contaminate composts with micro and nano plastics than the preferred practice of source separation.

From the testimony:

"It is Rural Vermont’s goal to secure pathways for clean streams of food residuals that may be composted on farms and either land applied or sold as soil amendments to enhance soil quality with valuable composts. We do not need scientific proof that commingling, crushing, and grinding packaged and unpackaged food residuals together create a greater likelihood of composts being contaminated with micro and nano plastics. We also don’t need to wait until we experience harm to the environment through human health effects that can not be compensated anymore in the future. We urge the legislature now to address the unregulated consolidation of waste streams of food residuals that prevents their use at highest and best use, including their decentralized diversion for agricultural use and the consumption by animals."