Elevating Composted Products

By Kerrin O'Brien | April 3, 2026 |

The Michigan Recycling Coalition and Organics Council, Michigan Nursery and Landscape Association, and the Composting Council of Michigan have been working together on House Bills 5761, 5762, and 5763. These bills aim to amend Part 85 of Michigan's NREPA, the Fertilizer Act, which authorizes the Michigan Department of Ag & Rural Development (MDARD) to regulate, require registration, and collect fees on fertilizer products sold in Michigan.

In Part 85, composted products are included in the definition of soil conditioner which makes these products subject to regulation. After many years of not enforcing Part 85 requirements on composted products, MDARD intends to move forward enforcing those regulations on soil conditioners. To mitigate the cost of State regulations from both EGLE and MDARD on composters, involved stakeholders have proposed a separate definition for composted products using three different distinctions based on the nutrient claims being made on each product.

Composted Products that are:

SOIL AMENDMENTS

  • Can make no claims about their product
  • Pay no fees on their product

FERTILIZERS

  • Can make very specific claims about their products
  • Pay product & registration fees
  • $.35/ton

SOIL CONDITIONERS

  • Can make only the general claims listed below:
    • Improves soil structure, porosity
    • Increases moisture infiltration, permeability
    • Supplies organic matter to existing soil
    • Aides in proliferation of soil microbes
    • Enables soils to retain nutrients longer
    • Performs any other generalized function for plant or soil health or growth. 
  • Pay product & registration fees
  • $.05/cubic yard > 10,000 cubic yards produced

While conversations with MDARD have evolved thinking around the final bill package, MDARD has yet to weigh in on it. Stakeholders will have an opportunity to weigh in on the matter as the legislative process moves forward.

Unlike other fertilizer products regulated in Part 85, Michigan manufactured compost is a uniquely environmentally beneficial product in many ways. Compost is created through the diversion of organic waste from landfill - yard debris and food scraps primarily - to a controlled biological decomposition process. The resulting compost has a number of beneficial characteristics valuable to the regeneration of soil. Part 85 aims to assure that consumers are getting quality products as marketed. Stay tuned.

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