Quality you can trust
The US Composting Council (USCC) Seal of Testing Assurance (STA) Program is a national compost testing program that lets buyers take a peek ‘under the hood’ so to speak, before buying.
Standards, facts and transparency. That is what you get when purchasing STA Certified Compost. Think of the STA like you would a Carfax report but for compost. You wouldn’t buy a car without all the facts—and we wouldn’t suggest you purchase compost without the facts either.
How does the Seal of Testing Assurance Program (STA) work?
The USCC’s national STA program provides a network of approved laboratories which strictly follow the comprehensive guidelines for Test Methods for the Examination of Composting and Compost (TMECC). TMECC sets standards for the suite of specific tests required as well as how the testing procedures are run, right down to how the instrumentation is calibrated. This ensures testing uniformity throughout all the labs in the program across the country.
Composters pay an annual fee to participate in this program which then requires them to submit their compost for testing several times a year, more or less often depending on the volume of compost their particular facility produces.
Participating labs conduct the STA testing and provide the participating composters with Compost Technical Data Sheets (CTDS). The beauty of this program is that it gives the consumer a way to do an apples to apples comparison between the different STA Certified compost producers in their area.
This means that all the test results, including pH, organic matter, soluble salts etc., can be evaluated equally side by side. This is the only accurate way to compare the data from two or more composts. This empowers the consumer so they can make the most educated decision when choosing a compost to purchase.
Simply put, if it’s not STA, then what is it?
