To learn more about Champions of Change, check out the program’s blog and the event video below. It’s also worth a moment to check out the Twitter hashtag #whchamps and see what people were tweeting during Thursday’s event!

This event is must -see for anyone around the Portland area who cares about processing organic residuals and is working to transform organics in the waste stream into marketable resources. BioCycle conferences provide great operational insights and networking opportunities on advanced composting, organics recycling and renewable energy.

Over 90 conference sessions and 65 exhibitors will be available to address topics like facility management, ecosystem services, biofertilizers and bioenergy.

The annual conference is holding presentations and a tradeshows on the 17^th and 18^th.  The final day, April 19, will guide folks to three facilities, including the Metro’s Central Solid Waste Transfer Station, the Pacific Region Compost and the dairy manure digester at Lochmead Farms, Inc.

For more information visit the conference site here.

By Erin Munning

Compost tea is a liquid produced by compost.  In technical jargon – it is formed by leaching soluble nutrients and extracting bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes from compost. Compost tea directly addresses soil borne disease organisms like Pythium, and foliar disease-causing organisms like Botrytis. In general, the beneficial organisms that are present in many compost teas compete with, feed on, or are antagonistic toward plant diseases, pest insects and plant feeding nematodes, when they are in their natural soil environment.

Compost tea can be applied either as a root drench in the ground or in potted plants, or as a foliar spray –that is, a spray applied to leaves. As an undiluted root drench, it may help protect against damping-off and other root diseases. As a foliar spray diluted at least in half with water, it provides a quick dose of nutrients and protection against leaf disease.

Most importantly, compost tea is simple to make: it can be a morning or afternoon project. Want to know more?

• Understand compost tea from the Soil Food Web experts
• Watch out this cool video on how to make steeped compost tea
• Watch out this neat-o video on how to make brewed compost tea

Interested in case studies?

• Compost tea to treat rose fungus problems
• Compost tea to treat lawn fungus issues

By Erin Munning

Here is what our CEO, Paul Sellew, had to say about the news:

“The significant investor interest Harvest has received is the result of our dynamic partnerships, innovative approaches, and proven ability to build the first nationwide organics management company. By integrating organics recycling, renewable energy and the production of soils, mulches and natural fertilizers, Harvest has shown that we are a leader in a new kind of cleantech – one that lowers costs. We are proud to partner with True North and other investors that want to be part of this disruptive model.”

Is this a big deal? The Wall Street Journal thinks so. Check it out!

At Harvest, we work with communities and partners to define a new path for organic materials. The demand for our sustainable, economical organics management solutions continues to grow. We sold millions of bags of organic soils and mulches at retail last year, and we will open the two largest commercial anaerobic digestion facilities – Energy Gardens – in North America later in 2012. Stay tuned to Harvest’s blog, Facebook page and Twitter feed for up-to-date information.

For example, companion planting is a fabulous way to maximize your garden time, space and material purchases. Why you may ask? John Jenson defines companion planting as the constructive use of plant and habitat interrelationships — from your trees to your nutrients to your insects to your plants. In most cases, a plant can have a positive or adversary reaction to other plants, nutrients and processes. To give you an idea, green beans and strawberries actually do better together than when alone, and you can grow sow thistle and lettuce in a very small space because of the deep rooting system of the thistle and short rooting system of the lettuce.

In other words, you let your family of plants work together so you get to work less.

To get you started, we’ve listed the primary techniques in companion planting for you to apply to your own yard or garden.

• increase the health of plants
• rotate crops to maximize biomass produced and soil fertility
• improve plant and soil nutrition
• match physical characteristics
• utilize weed, insect and animal relationships

For more resources:

• Goldenharvest.com
• John Jeavons, Author of How To Grow More Vegetables
• Seeds of Change.com
• Mother Earth News

By Erin Munning

Maitreya Ecovillage, in Eugene, Oregon, is hosting a two day biogas workshop April 14-15. Participants will utilize the community’s digester that converts the organic waste from their members into cooking fuel, fertilizer and soil amendments. The workshop will be taught by Warren Weisman, owner of HESTIA Home Biogas. Click here to register or for more information.

On March 31, from 8:30 to 9:30 PM, millions of people and organizations will turn off all non-essential lights for the sixth annual Earth Hour. The event is organized by the World Wildlife Fund on the last Saturday in March each year, and according to the WWF website, it has become “the world’s single largest campaign for the planet.”

This year’s Earth Hour features an interesting new twist with its “I Will If You Will” contest. IWIYW  challenges people to “dare” their social media connections to help the Earth in exchange for some kind of stunt: “I’ll wear whatever my daughter tells me to IF… 5,000 people commit to recycling in 2012,” “I’ll get in the water with a great white shark IF…  10,000 people give up plastic bags and straws for 2012,” “I will play the piano live on the web for 8 hours nonstop IF… you will start recycling,” etc.

As a company that spends every day working toward the sustainable future, Harvest loves this kind of thing! Biogas will one day contribute a large part of North America’s energy supply, and in countries like Germany, it already powers a significant portion of homes and businesses – these are the types of clean energy advancements that programs like Earth Hour are designed to encourage.

Harvest will be joining in on the fun with a Facebook contest and giveaway, so stay tuned to our Facebook page and Twitter handle for details. While you’re at it, let us know what you’re doing for Earth Hour!

Nearly 200 materials management thought leaders will gather in New Britain, Connecticut today for a summit entitled “Unlocking the Value: Transforming the Connecticut Materials Economy.” The event will focus on Connecticut’s waste stream in an effort to understand what materials are collected and what business opportunities exist to create products out of recycled items.

Harvest diverts organic materials from the waste stream every day and uses them to create a phenomenally useful product in biogas, so the Materials Management Summit is an event in which we take great interest. As part of a session on food scrap recycling, Harvest’s own Co-Founder and Vice President for Governmental Affairs, Wayne Davis, will give a presentation entitled “Anaerobic Digestion Opportunities and Challenges for Connecticut.” He will provide attendees with an AD overview, addressing the available technologies that would best fill Connecticut’s needs. He’ll also use his wealth of policy experience to discuss considerations that influence developers and investors, best practices in community relations and what Connecticut can do to promote accelerated AD development.

Other sessions at the summit will address manufacturing and product development using recycled content, food scrap recovery, recyclables processing and much more. Notable speakers (beyond Wayne, of course!) include Dan Esty, commissioner of the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and Susan Collins, the executive director of the container recycling institute.

Check out the event website to learn more!

CalRecycle recently released the Commercial Climate Calculator designed to help businesses understand their trash and its impacts – including cost, volume, and environmental impact. The coolest part – and what separates it from other tools – is that you don’t need a recycling program or need to know information about your trash and recycling to use the calculator.

By evaluating future potential, not current waste or recycling levels, it helps you examine and compare the relative diversion, financial, and climate impacts associated with different waste handling strategies at your business. Most importantly, it uses this evaluation to create a customized one-page report on current programs and future opportunities to reduce your trash that will gloss up your business and marketing proposals by calculating avoided disposal cost ($/yr.), GHG emission reduction (MTCO2E/yr.) and waste reduction amounts (tons/yr.).

This nifty calculator directly identifies ways your business can save money, conserve resources, divert waste from landfills and reduce greenhouse emissions.  Try it out today!

By Erin Munning

Satire aside, anyone who has implemented a recycling program knows the importance of strong signage. Unclear and confusing signage leads to items not being recycled to their highest and best use. Through shared understanding and the ability to sort correctly- we make things easier, cheaper and more efficient for the folks helping us reuse and recycle our waste.

According to Recycle Across America, standardized labeling policies and efficient sorting mechanisms benefit our communities by stimulating:

• better capture rates
• cleaner materials, which lead to higher recycling rates and lower costs for recycling facilities
• decreased solid-waste related expenses from better capture rates
• growing recycling even when expansion isn’t possible
• better understanding of sorting importance
• reduced burdens on haulers and ultimately the community

Labeling containers at your house and workplace is a great way to help this movement. Encouraging local businesses and your town to be consistent is also a critical step. To get you started we’ve listed a few resources for printing out yourself. Consider it an adult arts and craft project.

• The folks at Recycle Across America have a spectrum of posters.
• Go to Harvest Power for organics collection posters.
• Seattle Public Utilities has an inventory of recycling posters, including food waste.
• Check out these labels — free – from Oklahoma’s Metropolitan Environmental Trust.

Do you have any favorite recycling or organics recycling posters?
If so- send them over to our Facebook page. Who knows, it may become the next standardized recycling poster.

By Erin Munning