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Compost Agricultural Steering Committee June 27, 1995 1 PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF PRODUCT QUAL ITY GUI]DELMS: These guidelines describe the information that should be provided prospective users to allow a determination of the suitability and safety of compost use on agricultural crops. The guidelines are for composted organic materials that will be used to improve soil physical, chemical, and biological properties for crop production purposes. The guidelines provide a definition of compost and quality information intended to assist communication between compost producers and compost users. The guidelines will improve the ability of farmers to assess the safety and value of composts made from municipally -derived organic materials, where compost products. made from those feedstocks meet the guidelines. The guidelines apply to compost products made from any feedstock. Feedstocks include clean yard trimmings, food scraps, paper, wood, biosolids and other municipal solid waste materials that have not traditionally been applied to cropland. The feedstock must be listed, with approximate content, in descending order as percentage by weight or volume at the beginning of composting. The guidelines are not intended for non -composted materials, municipal mixed solid wastes, ash, or mineral amendments. The guidelines do not address materials used for potting soils, seedling mixes, landscape mixes, or turf grass topdressing. The guidelines are for voluntary use by compost producers and are not part of any additional regulation, beyond existing regulations by the Department of Food and Agriculture for product registration. Some unresolved issues that remain for the implementing organization to consider include the following: 1) acceptable levels of trace metal concentrations for compost application; 2) numerical limits or ranges; 3) additional work to determine methods of analysis relative to these guidelines; 4) inclusion of additional items when feasible methodologies are determined such as carbon to nitrogen (CIN) ratio, maturity, calcium, sulfur, magnesium, boron, sodium, chloride, and humus content. COMPOST DEFINITION: Compost-is•the stabilized and sanitized product of the'thermophilic decomposition of plant and animal material feedstock. It has undergone an initial rapid stage of decomposition and is in the process of humification (curing). . . 1