What is one of the biggest challenges to composters and scaling the composting industry? Contamination.

Meet the Panelist

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Wendell is the Marketing Director for the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), and is responsible for all aspects of the Marketing function including content development, communications strategy, brand management, and member engagement. Wendell also works on Education and Advocacy at BPI, and has led efforts to produce BPI’s “Roadmap for Increased Organics Diversion via a Single Set of Acceptability Criteria for Compostable Products”, and the first ever set of industry guidelines for the labeling and identification of compostable products. Prior to joining BPI, Wendell spent 10 years building the Marketing function at Eco-Products in Boulder, CO.

In 2010 Mitch Hedlund created the first and only society-wide standardized labeling system for recycling bins to make it possible for the public to be able to recycle properly, wherever they are. The standardized labels work for all types of recycling programs. There are now more than nine million standardized labels displayed on recycling bins, where they continuously prove to increase recycling levels 50-400% and reduce public mistakes at recycling bins significantly…often entirely.

José Miguel Pacheco Gale, born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a business activist and community organizer. Starting his career in compost at 21 years old, he worked at his father’s company Trito Agro Industrial Services (TAIS), picking up food scraps at local restaurants in the city and taking it to TAIS’s composting and agroecological farm in Salinas, Puerto Rico. Five years later, the company has diverted over a million pounds of food scraps and transformed them into compost for local farmers and the TAIS farm using innovative techniques that make up “fermentative composting”. Incorporating his interest in sustainable urban development, José Miguel (or JM for short) looks for opportunities in collaborating with communities to share the concept of “recycloponics” as a vehicle for social and economical change.

Clinton joined A1 Organics in July 2018. He worked in the retail natural foods industry creating marketing initiatives, brand campaigns, and innovative merchandising techniques. He is very passionate about regenerative practices, sustainability, family, and giving back to your community. Clinton has seen first-hand the importance and value of diverting organics out of landfills within a commercial retail food environment and the contamination challenges this environment creates. As the marketing manager for A1 Organics, Clinton actively works on marketing initiatives and communication strategies focused on the amazing environmental benefits of compost application and organics recycling.