The Compost Research and Education Foundation (CREF) supports initiatives that enhance the stature and practices of the composting industry by supporting scientific research, increasing awareness, and educating practitioners and the public to advance environmentally and economically sustainable organics recycling. CREF was incorporated in 1992 as a nonprofit 501(c)3. Some of the programs the Foundation has developed over the years include the Test Methods for Evaluating Compost and Composting (TMECC) to accurately test the compost produced to assure that high quality compost is being produced and sold and the Foundation also helped develop the first comprehensive operator training manual that is the basis for the current training program, the Compost Operations Training Course (COTC). CREF also manages and runs International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW) in the US, which is celebrated the first week of May each year. The Foundation also gives scholarships to college students doing research on compost and organics recycling, and funds individual topic-focused compost research projects, the most recent ones being on soluble salts, air emissions and compost applications – return on investment. CREF was also involved with editing the recently published The Composting Handbook.