The Recycled Organics Unit has developed a valuable resource titled Risk Management Tools for the Recycled Organics Industry. This Second Edition is an aid to the recycled organics industry to avoid the risk of potentially persistent herbicides in compostable organic materials. This report provides access to resources and services to manage the potential risks of herbicide contamination of compost in the short term and is available to download for free.

Download the complete, comprehensive report:

• Risk Management Tools for the Recycled Organics Industry

A poster addendum is also available for this report.

This document is a risk management tool in response to international incidents indicating the potential for herbicide contamination of recycled organics products. This report is a precautionary step to inform the industry of the potential threat from two specific herbicides to various crops and applications and to assist producers of recycled organics products to avoid the problems that have occurred overseas.

A risk assessment of potentially persistent herbicides in New South Wales was conducted in response to incidents of contamination reported internationally. This study indicated that in New South Wales, there is currently:

• NO evidence of the use of the potentially problematic herbicides (clopyralid,and picloram) in applications from which raw materials for commercial compost production are commonly sourced; and
• NO evidence of any herbicide contamination issues in commercial composts manufactured in New South Wales (or Australia).

In the short term, the organics recycling and processing industry requires a range of resources and services that manage the potential risks posed by these potentially persistent herbicides. These resources and services will enable the industry to manage potential risk whilst longer term and sustainable resolution of this issue can be addressed.

This report provides access to such resources and services as are required to manage these risks in the short term, including:

• Identifying and documenting raw materials commonly processed into compost in NSW that could potentially contain these herbicides;
• Documenting tolerance levels for different crops/applications known to be susceptible to these herbicides;
• Ensuring cost effective commercial testing services are available;
• Clearly documenting a bioassay method for testing products for the presence of these herbicides. An accompanying poster is also available;
• Defining and documenting a sampling method to allow representative samples of material to be tested for these herbicides.

This report includes details for laboratory analysis of the potentially persistent herbicides. Virotec Laboratory (now SGS) has developed a method for this analysis and is the recommended laboratory for this testing. Contact details for the laboratory are given below:

Note: The Risk Assessment of Garden Maintenance Chemicals in Recycled Organics Products is also available to download.

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