An e-mail campaign aimed at Dow Chemical Company CEO Michael Parker is demanding that the company take Confront and other clopyralid-containing herbicides off the market because they are perceived as a hazard to backyard and centralized composting processes.
The web-based campaign has been launched by the Athens, Ga.-based GrassRoots Recycling Network (GRRN) and claims that herbicides containing clopyralid are unsafe for composting and should be pulled from the market.
"Confront is totally contradictory to all of our goals for recycling, resource conservation and sustainability," GRRN President Anne Morse said. "Dow must follow the precautionary principle and withdraw Confront immediately until it can be proven safe for organics recycling."
This issue has been brewing for more than a year, explained Scott Eicher, senior marketing manager, Dow AgroSciences, when a greenhouse grower in Washington State noticed a problem with his tomato plants.
"Typically you use a 6:1 soil to compost ratio when growing plants," Eicher related. "This grower was using 100 percent compost and it affected the tomato plants."
Eicher agreed that using compost with Clopyralid can affect certain plants, but he also stressed that the amount of Clopyralid is what makes the difference in determining its adverse effects.
"Just because you can detect Clopyralid in compost doesn't mean there is biological activity," he declared. "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will regulate when there is an environmental impact or biological impact."
Because of this, Eicher said he believes that the e-mail campaign started by GRRN is an extreme reaction.
"That's a slippery slope for GRRN to walk on because if you start testing, you're going to find things you really don't want to find," he advised. "For example treated wood has metals such as cooper, chromium and arsenic that will end up in compost and it doesn't all break down in the composting process. You can detect it, but is it an issue?"
Eicher explained that while Dow has no plans to remove Confront or any other products from the market, it is working with the State of Washington, which is home to largest concentration of lawn care companies in the country, and the EPA to reword the Confront label and to figure out a way to help educate the consumer about the effects Clopyralid can have in compost.
"There's an inherent issue with enforcement," he advised. "The lawn care company might be aware of the problem, but the homeowner may not. We're trying to change our label to make sure the homeowner is communicated with prior to the application."
Eicher stressed, however, that this wouldn't be considered a pre-notification because the lawn care company could advise the homeowner at the beginning of the season to leave clippings on the lawn if a clopyralid-containing product is used.
This is a solution that does not appease the GRRN, however.
"Dow's proposal that the solution lies in educating composters … is completely unacceptable," Morse declared.
But, Eicher said DowAgro will continue with its research to find a way to best resolve this situation without pulling these products from the market.
"The positive intent of recycling should not be stopped or have unenforceable or economic burdens put on it because of the small possibility of one person's misuse," Eicher asserted.