When the EC Waste Recycling Research and Development Programme was initiated in the late 70s, composting was a subject for coordination only as, at the time, experts advised that the technology was well known and no further research was required. In the event, the Compost Coordination Group attracted considerable interest, particularly from research groups in several member countries. A symposium was held in 1986 and a workshop in 1988. The proceedings of both these meetings have been published. Despite this activity, commercial exploitation of composting as a waste management tool has been very limited. There has been little market demand for waste-derived composts which are frequently, and often wrongly, considered inferior to other soil conditioners such as peat. It has been agreed that a major constraint to the wider development of composting has been the lack of agreed standards for compost processes and products. At a research coordination meeting organised by DG-XII in Brussels (January 1991) it was proposed that a workshop should be held under the general heading of quality assurance and compost production. The French organisation ANRED volunteered to host the workshop in Angers in September 1991. Attendance was to be limited to invited experts with the intention of focusing discussions on definitions and standards required to promote composting as a technically economically viable process in waste management.