The Federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) has recently engaged a consortium led by Dr Kevin Wilkinson, Frontier Ag & Environment, to consider Revision of AS4454: Composts, Soil Conditioners and Mulches in order to facilitate the production and use of clean, consistent and safe recycled organic products.
One of the focus areas of this work will be physical contaminants, particularly soft plastics, and ways of measuring their presence in composting feedstock and also more stringent maximum threshold levels in the end products.
“We will also address chemical contaminants, but due to the lack of data on the possible presence and impacts of chemicals of concern and the difficulties of establishing ‘safe’ threshold limits, we will seek alternative approaches for the management of chemical and biological contaminants,” said Wilkinson.
He added that this project will not be just a desktop study, but that much time and effort will be spent engaging and consulting with key industry and government bodies, ensuring that views, ideas and opinions of all key stakeholders are captured and inform the outcome, which will be a pathway towards the production and use of clean and safe recycled organic products.
“AS4454 may not be the best tool to address every issue, so we will also be assessing other options for the management of physical, chemical and biological contaminants in recycled organic products,” said Wilkinson.