SB5717 – Increasing government purchases of compost products, and creating a pilot program to reimburse farming operations for purchasing and using them.
Prime Sponsor – Senator Stanford (D; 1st District; Bothell.)
Current status – Referred to the Committee on Environment, Energy and Technology.
Next step would be – Scheduling a hearing.
Legislative tracking page for the bill.
SB5731 is a much more ambitious compost bill; this bill shares some of its provisions.

Comments –
Since a given amount of collected organics turns into a much smaller amount of compost product, I think the bill’s targets must mean jurisdictions are supposed to buy percentages of the amount of finished compost that a certain amount of collected organics would produce after it was processed.

Summary –
Like SB5731, the bill would require local jurisdictions with curbside organics collection services available to residents to adopt a compost procurement ordinance to implement the State’s current law about using compost in government projects, and a compost procurement plan to meet its requirements. By January 1, 2024, they’d have to make reasonable efforts to purchase finished compost products equivalent to 25% of the amount of organic materials collected and delivered to their compost processor each year. This target would increase to  50% starting in 2026, and to 70% starting in 2028.

Both bills would require the use of compost products to the maximum extent economically feasible to meet the State’s current requirements for using them in projects, though this bill requires that of “governmental units” in general, rather than  just state agencies, local governments, and public schools. They both would allow preferential purchasing of compost in order to meet the State’s requirements for projects, rather than having to go with the lowest bidder.

In both bills, if funds were appropriated for it, the Department of Agriculture would be required to create a three-year pilot program to reimburse farming operations for up to $10,000 a year or 50% of the costs of purchasing and using compost products that were not generated by them, including transportation, equipment, spreading, and labor costs. To be eligible an operation would have to complete an eligibility review to ensure that the proposed transport and application of compost products is consistent with the Department’s agricultural pest control rules, to verify that it would allow soil sampling to be conducted by upon request during the duration program as necessary to establish a baseline of soil quality and carbon storage and for subsequent evaluations to assist the department’s reporting, and release the State from any claims based on the use of the compost. The Department of Agriculture would have to report to the appropriate committees of the Legislature, including the amount of compost for which reimbursement was sought under the program; the qualitative or quantitative effects of the program on soil quality and carbon storage; and an evaluation of the benefits and costs to the state of continuing, expanding, or furthering the strategies it explored. (However, this bill would not make the purchase of compost spreading equipment for financing for it eligible for grants from the Sustainable Farms and Fields program.)

The bill would authorize the Department of Ecology as well as the Attorney General, cities, and counties to pursue false or misleading claims for plastic products claiming to be “compostable” or “biodegradable”, but would not make the other changes in the enforcement of the Plastic Product Degradability Act that SB5731 does.