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Compost Certification
Assurance from the experts
Organic Farmers & Growers is a provider of inspection and certification services to PAS 100 and the Compost Quality Protocol on behalf of The Association for Organics Recycling.
With a long and respected history in the inspection and licensing of organic food and farming, OF&G focuses on delivering an efficient and friendly service that rigorously meets the demands of the certification programme.
We are the only body able to provide certification to both PAS 100 and the QCP as well as PAS 110 and the Quality Digestate Protocol (under the Biofertiliser Certification Scheme).
Hopefully you will find all of the information you need on this page. If you have any questions regarding the scheme, our team will be happy to answer them.
Why is certification necessary?
The introduction of the Quality Compost Protocol in 2007 marked a major shift in attitudes to composting, allowing the end results of the process to be seen as a product, rather than a waste.
This is good news in many ways and more and more organisations are now taking advantage of this and gaining certification for their compost under the PAS 100 and Compost Quality Protocol scheme.
The certification provides evidence that the composter has established an effective management system for producing quality compost. Being able to label it as a product and not a waste removes costly waste regulatory controls on its storage and use.
How it works
The process of gaining certification is straightforward. We describe the likely steps below, to help operators understand what to expect.
You can also see the full details of PAS 100 here, more details on the Quality Protocol here and other useful information in this section of the Organics Recycling Group website.
Call us
Before you start, why not give us a call so we can help you to be sure you have everything in place to start the process.
Application
When you are ready to apply you can download the application forms and send it back to us with the documents it asks for. We’ll review it then contact an inspector who will arrange to come and see you.
Inspection
An inspector will visit your site at an agreed time and date. They will inspect your site against the standards and will send their report to OF&G for checking by our certification officer.
Possible compliance issues identified
The good news is that you do not automatically pass or fail an inspection. If the inspector finds issues that would prevent us from issuing a certificate, the certification officer will send you a ‘compliance notice’ outlining the problems. This gives you the opportunity to correct these matters. When the certification officer is satisfied that any non-compliances have been dealt with, they can issue the certificate.
Certification
Congratulations. You are now certified to PAS 100 and the Quality Compost Protocol. Glad to be of service! We’ll be in touch later in the year to help you renew your certificate or you can give us a call anytime to talk about any issues you have.
Applying for compost certification with OF&G
If you have read all of this information and are ready to complete your application, please follow the links below to download the relevant application form, price list and our Technical Leaflet. All are in the Adobe PDF format and will open in Adobe Reader.
The Standards
>> The Quality Protocol for Compost (Adobe PDF)
>> BSI PAS 100 Frequently Asked Questions
If you would like an application pack posted to you, containing all of the above, please contact us.
AD & Compost Newsletter
OF&G now publishes a composting and anaerobic digestion-focused newsletter. Click on the links below to find our latest issue, as well as older editions.
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