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Food Waste and Composting Materials

MCLI Recommendation: "States should adopt laws that other states have adopted on the waste problems posed by products, packaging, food scraps, and industrial waste."

LPDD Recommendation: "States should adopt legislation banning food waste in landfills, using Vermont’s Universal Recycling Law as a model."

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37 resources

Resource Congress

Proposed Agriculture Resilience Act (2020)

The proposed Agriculture Resilience Act of 2020 would set a target of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. agriculture by the year 2040. It would pursue this target by: Increasing Resear...
Resource Local Governments

Model Executive Order on Municipal Leadership on Food Waste Reduction

Given the large amount of food that some municipalities procure and the many people that they employ, the impact of food waste reduction measures in municipal operations can be substantial and far-rea...
Example States and State Governments

California SB 1383

SB 1383 mandates the Air Resources Board to establish targets for reducing organic waste in landfills and mandates the adoption of regulations to reduce methane emissions from livestock and dairy manu...
Resource Local Governments

Milan Urban Food Policy Pact

The MUFPP is an international pact signed by 209 cities with over 450 million population supporting best practices in managing food waste. The MUFPP website also contains best practices, awards, and o...
Resource Local Governments

Model Ordinance on Mandatory Reporting for Large Food Waste Generators

Up to 40 percent of food in the United States is wasted—and 95 percent is disposed of in landfills or incinerated. Diverting food waste from landfills by preventing food waste, donating surplus food, ...
Resource Local Governments

Model Municipal Zoning Ordinance on Community Composting

This Model Municipal Zoning Ordinance on Community Composting, published by NRDC and ELI, is a template ordinance that can be adapted and enacted by a municipality to establish community composting as...
Resource States and State Governments

ILSR Report, State of Composting in the US

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance published a 2014 report, State of Composting in the US, which takes a national snapshot of composting practices and identifies model public policies and programs.
Model Law States and State Governments

LPDD Model Law: State Legislation Supporting Sustainable Management of Food Waste

The model law below addresses methods by which states can support the sustainable management of food waste. It targets individuals producing food residuals, and establishes state policies for the redu...
Example States and State Governments

Get Food Smart Tennessee

Get Food Smart Tennessee is a state-run program coordinating with restaurants, schools, governments, non-profits, grocers, agriculture, and industry to reduce food waste. Their partners collaborate to...
Example States and State Governments

Washington’s Sustainable Food Management Legislation

Washington’s HB2301 (2024) creates programs to prioritize food waste prevention, donation, or upcycling over composting or anaerobic digestion, and directs the state’s newly created Center for Sustain...
Example States and State Governments

Rhode Island Food Waste Diversion Law

Rhode Island’s law required covered entities to divert organic waste to an authorized composting or anaerobic digestion facility, or a facility that uses any other authorized recycling method, includi...
Example Local Governments

NYC’s Commercial Organic Waste Law

New York City’s Local Law 146, the Commercial Organic Waste Law, requires covered food waste generators to source-separate their organic material and either arrange for the transportation of this mate...
Example Local Governments

Seattle Food Waste Ordinance

In 2014, Seattle passed an ordinance prohibiting food waste and compostable paper from going in the trash, with a $50 associated fine. While the enforcement provisions of the ordinance were later stru...
Example States and State Governments

Connecticut’s Composting Requirements

Public Act 13-285, An Act Concerning Recycling and Jobs, requires that food wholesalers, manufacturers, grocery stores, and conference centers located within 20 miles of a composting facility must sou...
Example Local Governments

Denver’s Waste No More Ballot Measure

Via ballot measure in the 2022 midterms, Denver voters endorsed new rules mandating that large apartment buildings, restaurants and a broad range of other commercial businesses be required to recycle ...
Example Private Entities

Full Harvest

Full Harvest has created an online platform for farmers to sell their ugly and surplus food directly to businesses that don’t care what the produce looks like because they process it. Businesses like ...
Example Local Governments

San Francisco’s Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance

San Francisco’s Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance covers businesses, governmental entities, multi-family or commercial residences, and individuals. All covered persons must sort their waste...
Example States and State Governments

Massachusetts Commercial Organic Waste Ban

In 2014, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection amended regulations on solid waste disposal by adding “commercial organic material” to a list of several materials already barred from...
Example Local Governments

Austin’s Universal Recycling Ordinance

Austin’s Universal Recycling Ordinance includes organic waste requirements, which took effect in October 2016. Under the Ordinance, covered “food enterprises” must provide organics diversion services....
Example Local Governments

Metro Portland’s Food Waste Diversion Ordinance

Portland OR’s metropolitan government approved a 2018 ordinance that requires certain businesses to separate and divert food waste. Metro’s Business Food Waste Requirement requires that local jurisdic...
Example Local Governments

Boston’s Residential Composting Program

In May 2022, Boston opened a curbside food waste collection program with rolling online enrollment. Food waste, collected with residents’ scheduled trash and recycling, will be sent to a private compo...
Resource States and State Governments

FAO factsheet, Food Wastage Footprint and Climate Change

The FAO’s brief report surveys the carbon footprint of food waste, the carbon intensities of different food types, and food waste reduction scenarios.
Resource Congress

Report, Opportunities to Reduce Food Waste in the 2023 Farm Bill

Opportunities to Reduce Food Waste in the 2023 Farm Bill details how Congress can take action to reduce food waste and offers specific recommendations of provisions to include in the 2023 Farm Bill. T...
Example Local Governments

Boulder’s Universal Zero Waste Ordinance

Boulder’s Universal Zero Waste Ordinance require business owners, residential property owners, institutions (including educational and nonprofit organizations), and event permit holders in Boulder to ...
Resource States and State Governments

Report, Food Surplus and Its Climate Burdens

This 2016 paper in Environmental Science and Technology notes that in the year 2010, food availability was 20% higher than was required on a global scale, and provides a systematic approach to estimat...
Resource Local Governments

Model Municipal Ordinance on Advancing Community Composting

The Environmental Law Institute (ELI), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) developed a model municipal ordinance to advance community composting....
Resource States and State Governments

Report, Bans and Beyond: Designing and Implementing Organic Waste Bans and Mandatory Organics Recycling Laws

This 2019 report from Harvard’s Food Law and Policy Clinic analyzes the structure and implementation of organic waste bans and presents examples from states and cities with existing or proposed waste ...
Example Local Governments

NRDC’s Food Matters Pilot

The Food Matters project at NRDC partners with cities to achieve meaningful reductions in food waste through comprehensive policies and programs. The project is currently partnering with city agencies...
Example Local Governments

Hennepin County MN’s Commercial Organics Recycling Ordinance

Hennepin County’s commercial organics recycling ordinance requires certain businesses to divert food scraps for beneficial use, including donation for human consumption and diversion of food scraps fo...
Example States and State Governments

California’s Mandatory Commercial Recycling Law

AB 1826 was signed in Sept. 2014. It requires businesses that produce specified amounts of organic waste to do at least one of the following: • Source-separate organic waste and subscribe to an organi...
Example States and State Governments

NY Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Law

In 2019, NYS passed the Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling law. Effective January 1, 2022, large generators of food scraps (defined as generating an annual average of two tons per week or more) m...
Resource Local Governments

NRDC Report, Tackling Food Waste in Cities

NRDC’s 2019 report, Tackling Food Waste in Cities: A Policy and Program Toolkit, is aimed at city policymakers and agency staff nationwide that are seeking to start a program or implement policies to ...
Example States and State Governments

Vermont’s Universal Recycling Law

Act 148 of 2012, Vermont’s Universal Recycling Law, bans food waste, including from households, from disposal in trash and landfills on July 1, 2020. Act 148 provides incentives to divert materials by...
Example States and State Governments

New Jersey’s A2371 (2020)

New Jersey’s A2371 (2020) amends the state RPS’s definition of “Class I renewable energy” to include methane gas from a biomass facility (provided that the biomass is cultivated and harvested in a sus...
Resource States and State Governments

US Composting Council Regulations Database and Model Rule

The US Composting Council catalogs composting regulations across a variety of states and large cities, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, NYC, Austin, and San Francisco. The ...
Resource Local Governments

Model Compost Procurement Policy

Composting is an effective way to reduce food waste in cities, by turning food scraps into a natural soil amendment that can be used in city gardens and landscaping and improve soil health and water r...
Model Law States and State Governments

LPDD Model Law: State Law to Divert Food Waste from Landfills

This model state legislation lays out a framework by which states can divert food waste from landfills to eligible processing facilities (including industrial-scale composters) or onsite composters. T...