Is your organic compost up to the test?

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How do you respond when a customers informs you that your compost did not meet expectation? The right response is a number of well constructed open ended questions to build up a picture and history of the situation; maintaining confidence in the product is essential. Every customer is valued regardless of the amount of product they purchase and a complaint must be taken very seriously. The customer should be taken through step by step the standards and benefits of BSI PAS 100:2011, only those in the industry will fully appreciate the work and commitment in obtaining and maintaining the standard; BSI PAS 100:2011 for composted materials acts as a baseline specification, which assures that compost is produced to a level of consistency, reliability and safety laid down by the specification. However, PAS 100 does not set limits for all characteristics required by specific end users such as growing media manufacturers. Guidelines which aim to assist producers of composted green materials to better understand and meet the specific requirements for composts to be used in growing media have recently been published by WRAP (Guidelines for Specification of Composts for Growing Media, WRAP, 2011). These guidelines have been developed in partnership with key stakeholders, including growing media manufacturers and compost producers, with input from the Association for Organics Recycling (AfOR) and other experts. As the document title indicates they are guidelines only and a compost producer will need to agree exact specifications for compost products with their customer, who may have more exacting standards, in order to guarantee that compost products meet their needs. For the production of food crops for example, human health standards set by the retailer or farm assurance scheme maybe more stringent than those set out in this good practice guide and should be referred to. Users of composts are advised to trial and test the material prior to commercial use.