Pay Dirt: Expanding Composting to Reduce Waste, Create Jobs & Protect Watersheds
By Brenda Platt
Based on the findings of two recent reports from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s Composting Makes
$en$e Project – Pay Dirt and Building Healthy Soils with Compost to Protect Watersheds, this presentation
will feature new research on the jobs sustained through composting and compost use. Based on data for
Maryland, ILSR found that 1,400 new full-time jobs could potentially be supported for every 1 million tons
of yard trim and food scraps converted into compost that is used locally in green infrastructure and lowimpact development. ILSR contacted 13 for-profit businesses that use compost for soil erosion control,
stormwater management, and other green infrastructure to determine how many workers they employ
and how much compost they use. Together these businesses, which span nine states from Maryland to
California, employ 18 workers for every 10,000 tons per year of compost used. This is in addition to the
jobs sustained by manufacturing the compost. Pay Dirt underscores the importance of a diverse
composting infrastructure, and suggests policies to overcome obstacles to expansion. The companion
report, Building Healthy Soils with Compost to Protect Watersheds, highlights the importance of organic
matter to healthy soils, and links healthy soils in turn to a healthier watershed. Together these reports
demonstrate the potential for a new made-in-America industrial sector through expanded composting
and compost use and the many environmental benefits that would result.
For more information and to download the reports, please visit: www.ilsr.org/paydirt
Brenda Platt
Co-Director, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Director, Composting Makes $en$e
Brenda Platt has worked 27 years at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance fighting trash burners and
promoting waste reduction, recycling and composting, particularly recycling-based jobs. She currently
directs ILSR’s Sustainable Plastics project and Composting Makes $en$e initiative, and co-chairs the
Sustainable Biomaterials Collaborative. Her latest report, Pay Dirt: Composting in Maryland to Reduce
Waste, Create Jobs & Protect the Bay, documents the importance of composting and compost use to
enhance soils, protect watersheds, reduce waste, and create jobs. She has a B.S. degree in Mechanical
Engineering from The George Washington University and holds a Maryland license to operate commercial
composting facilities. Brenda chairs the Environmental and Legislative Affairs Committee of the US
Composting Council. She is a founding member of the GrassRoots Recycling Network and a past board
member of the National Recycling Coalition and the Container Recycling Institute.