Mike Houseman has been making compost for the past 10 years. He currently manages two of Waste Connections largest compost facilities; the Hidden Valley Compost Factory (a fully enclosed facility- ask him about the challenges) and Silver Springs Organics. Mike began his journey with compost at Silver Springs Organics where he was hired as a laborer to clean the facility in 2013; a year later he became an Operator at the same facility and held that position for seven years. In 2022 Mike became the Operations Manager for Silver Springs Organics and shortly after Operations Manager at the Compost Factory. He has been a board member for the Washington Organic Recycling Council for the last two years and plans to continue to serve on the board to help educate folks about the importance of using compost and making a high-quality finished compost. In his free time Mike can be found traveling with his wife, rock hounding or playing disc golf.

Session Code: 4A

Track: Operations

Session Name: Safety

Session Time: Thursday, February 8, 8:30 – 10:00 AM

Presentation Title: Safety is Not an Accident

Presentation Description: What can you do to make sure that Safety is intentional? Take a journey with me to Silver Springs Organics where they are on their 11th year incident free. we will talk about Safety culture, Retention, Servant Leadership, how we got to 11 years and what we do to continue to make it a safe place to work.