In more than 25 years of work, Matthew Cotton has become a respected resource for all aspects of the composting industry. This spans from providing permitting assistance to new and expanded composting, anaerobic digestion, and chipping & grinding facilities, to providing hands-on odor mitigation at composting facilities, to conducting important statewide studies of the California organics industry. He has developed training programs for the US Composting Council — USCC, the Solid Waste Association of North America, and the California Resource Recovery Association. He is a lead instructor for the USCC's 40-hour Compost Operator training course. 

 

Matthew has written approved fire plans for composting, chip & grind, and C&D facilities, and is familiar with practical BMPs and operational practices which help mitigate the risk of fire at these types of facilities. He conducts important research on the organics industry, including the study of compost infrastructure; the fate of compostable plastics; and the greenhouse gas impacts of applying compost to agricultural soils, as well as many other projects. 

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Matthew was involved in crafting California’s Odor Impact Minimization Plan, OIMP,  process and wrote the template plan on the CalRecycle website. He has written and revised over 40 OIMPs and provides hands on technical assistance to compost facility operators. He was a co-author of the Comprehensive Compost Odor Response Project funded by CalRecycle.