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BFI is a sustaining member and .board member of the Composting Council in Washington, D.C., representing industnj, waste generators, researchers, customers, public officials and the public in its efforts to foster the success of composting. BFI's Regional Organics Representative, Jay Kiiboum, in California is the Chai~,-,an of the Council's Product Marketing Committee. This committee has already provided compost market studies, compost use guidelines, compost field research, government procurement initiatives and an educational forum to help create viable markets for compost. Compost Utilization Research In cooperation with the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB), the Department of Food and Agriculture, CORC, and the Composfing Council, BFI has assisted in the development of initiatives to create the agricultural market for compost. BFI's Bay Area Product Marketing Manager, Hilary Gans, is an appointed member of a CIWMB committee which will monitor agricultural research projects funded by the Board for 1995. The committee will also formulate an action plan to ensure that obstacles to the use of compost in agriculture are overcome. Also on the committee are key representatives from California's Agricultural industry. BFI is a field participant and member of the grant proposal team in one of the projects funded by the ClVVMB this year. The project, lead by the City of San Jose, will determine the effects of ground green waste applied to agricultural land. The project will use products manufactured at BFI's Newby Island Compost Facility to examine matedal application costs and methods, contribution to soil improvement, yield analysis, potential phytotoxicity, and weed incidence. A portion of the grant monies will be allocated to publication of the study's results and educating farmers on the best techniques and bener~s. In the Bay Area, BFI has reserved 5,000 square feet of the Newby Project Site as a product demonstration area for compost and mulch growth tests of plants in the initial years of this OMCF project. This area will have decorative labels describing the tests and end.product uses. It will also be used by BFI's Northem California marketing personnel to conduct germination bio-assays under various controlled and unco.~-ulled conditions (a very important use of the site) and retain records on the results. 4