Greetings!
As impacts of COVID-19 continue to escalate, we’ve been gathering resources, ideas and thoughts for you. Today’s message is focused on our largest membership group, compost producers.
It’s important to be transparent about what we don’t know:
this is a new stand of virus it has not been tested in a composting environment under the EPA 503 guidelines of the Process to Further Reduce Pathogens (PFRP).
However, what we do know is:
- the family of viruses including COVID-19 is made up primarily of protein and it is an enveloped virus, with a fragile outer membrane. Generally, enveloped viruses are less stable in the environment and are more susceptible to oxidants, such as chlorine. Other studies concur, noting that the human coronaviruses transmissable (gastroenteritis coronavirus) and mouse hepatitis virus demonstrated a 99.9% die-off in from 2 days (9) at 23° C to 2 weeks (10) at 25° C. Heat, high or low pH, sunlight and common disinfectants (such as chlorine) all facilitate die off. (see link below W.H.O. Water, sanitation, hygiene and waste management for the COVID-19 virus Technical brief 3 March 2020)1
- What does this mean? It means that with all the proper precautions you already take in your industrial compost process, (mixing into ASP, windrows or other processes), it is unlikely this virus is transferrable in commercial compost piles that have reached PFRP.
- Precautions to take in your process:
- Workers should wear OSHA recommended PPE when handling and mixing raw feedstocks.
- Equipment used for feedstock material handling and mixing should not be used for curing, screening or loading of finished compost products.
- Feedstock receiving and mixing should be downstream or physically separated from finished product storage.
- Equipment buckets, tracks and tires should be steam cleaned of disinfected with an EPA approved sanitizer before entering any curing or finished product area.
- Transport vehicles and general public traffic should not enter these areas.
- Feedstock transport trucks should not be used to transport curing or finished compost.
- Employees should follow CDC guidelines for sanitation and hand washing.
Keep Up Your Good Work!
While taking time to be sure all of the proper precautions are being followed in your facility, we encourage you to continue producing the organic matter—compost—we need for healthy soil. It is important that we continue to be the source of life-giving compost, which is our mission.
Sincerely,
Frank Franciosi, Executive Director
Patrick Geraty, President
