Zach is Technology and Compliance Manager for Indianhead and has been with Indianhead for 3 years. He is a recent graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the discipline of biochemical engineering. He has experience in recycling, raw materials, and waste management.

At Indianhead, his primary function is ensuring continued compliance with federal and state regulations and on-site support for permitting and renewals. He also works to develop new processes and appliactions for compost utilization.

Session Code: 5D

Track: Florida

Session Name: State of Composting in Florida

Session Time: Thursday, February 8, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM

Presentation Title: “Won’t you be my neighbor?” One Company’s strategy to be part of the solution, bring the community along, and ensure the successful future of compost in Florida

Presentation Description: The compost industry’s success is reliant on its biggest issue, population growth. After 5 years of producing compost in St. Augustine, Florida, Indianhead is tackling the issue three fold through a pilot program targeted to help manage the issues facing our success as a full cycle solution to urban issues of yard and human waste. The Good Neighbor Pilot Program (GNPP) combines education and communication campaigns, executing abatement projects, and assisting our local leadership in policies that assist this issue.

As Florida’s population continues to see staggering growth in population, previously rural areas are quickly becoming developed and suburbanized. This migration creates more waste and less space. More waste serves as an opportunity for composters like us but comes at the cost of more odor complaints and nuisance issues with newly constructed neighborhoods and a general lack of understanding by many of where their waste must go.

At Indianhead, we’ve developed a few different initiatives and want to share our success, failures, area leadership partners, and path to help our industry thrive. We believe by educating locals about compost and the life cycle of waste, and having the community involved in composting and conservation efforts, we can solve larger scale issues and have success as businesses.

Our presentation will focus on the origin story of Indianhead, our experience encountering the challenges of a growing compost operation, and how we’ve turned those challenges into the opportunity to be a respected member of our community. We are excited to bring our local team, area officials, and consultant team.