Waste & Recycling News spoke with Scozzafava about her new position and the future of the organics industry.
Rosa, Brian
FYI
http://www.wasterecyclingnews.com/article/20130521/NEWS02/130519950/new-composting-council-director-organics-need-to-have-seat-at-the?utm_campaign=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=daily_email&utm_source=daily_20130521&utm_content=article5
Lori Scozzafava is the new executive director of the U.S. Composting Council, replacing former executive director Michael Virga. She comes to the U.S. Composting Council with more than 25 years of experience in solid waste management, including nine years as deputy executive director of the Solid Waste Association of North America, a position she left in October 2012.
Waste & Recycling News spoke with Scozzafava about her new position and the future of the organics industry.
Lori
Scozzafava
Q: Waste management is a very broad industry. Why did you decide to get involved with the U.S. Composting Council?
A: There are two reasons. One, I was very much excited about the opportunity of leading the organization and taking on the full role and responsibility for the leadership component of it. As executive director, I'm going to be responsible for developing, prioritizing and carrying out the council's policies and overall strategies, which I find very exciting, and also be very much involved in overseeing all the financial components to the organization as well. But that being said, I also have very much been involved in environmental issues and a wide variety of solid waste management strategies; I find it very exciting that I'll be able to focus now on organics management.
Q: How will this role differ from your position with SWANA, and what experience carries over?
A: Actually, the role is very similar. My responsibilities as deputy executive director focused very much on strategic planning and financial management, but in there I also had responsibility for overseeing the membership and chapter services department, the database and IT management, and the overall administration of the organization — so our administrative department.
Q: What are some challenges the USCC, and the organics industry in general, are facing?
A: One of the things that we want to focus on is making people aware of the importance of compost, but that being said, we see challenges associated with technical issues, and then there are awareness issues on the technical side of things. We're going to be faced with issues like persistent herbicides finding their way into compost, making sure that compost is a part of legislative strategies associated with the trends that we're seeing in the industry regarding environmental issues, climate change, energy, etc.
Q: Organics collection has been called "the last frontier." Do you agree with that description?
A: I can see that perspective. I think that in many cases when both businesses and governments who have responsibility for residential programs, initially when they're thinking of reducing their waste stream, they focus initially on more traditional recyclables like glass, aluminum, paper, and so the focus on organics has not always been the main component of their program. Even when it was part of their program, often it was focused simply on yard waste, but there's a lot of organic material in the waste stream, and if we are going to be able to broaden our ability to reduce materials going to disposal, then organics have to be more of a focus.
Q: Where do you hope to lead the USCC in coming years?
A: I see that the timing now is really incredibly important. I think that organics has not had a position at the table, and a lot of discussion on the legislative issues that I've described, and so we need to have organics a part of that equation when we're talking about overall reduction of the waste stream. So my hope is that we will be able to create a more prominent position for organics management and make sure that it's understood that it has a major contribution to achieving recycling goals and also to other environmental issues.
Brian, Organic Recycling Specialist
NC DENR, Division of Environmental Assistance & Outreach
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