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Materials Consumption and Solid Waste

The circular economy represents a powerful new paradigm for materials consumption and solid waste management. Instead of beginning with extraction and ending with waste, the circular economy begins with material already in use, or else material designed for iterative uses, moves through production and consumption, and into waste management, which secures a revived or altered source material, which in turn moves though production and consumption, and so on, over and over again. Achieving significant GHG reductions in this area requires widespread shifts in production and consumption toward what can be expressed succinctly in a familiar refrain: “reduce, reuse, recycle.” There are a number of legal pathways to achieving emissions reductions through materials consumption and solid waste management. Corporate governance as well as R&D of new materials can play a significant role, and significant advances can be made through regulatory interventions.

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101 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

Boulder’s Deconstruction Ordinance

Boulder, Colorado’s deconstruction ordinance requires deconstruction of any building being torn down regardless of age and whether it’s residential or commercial. Boulder’s ordinance also includes wha...
Example States and State Governments

California’s Global Warming Solutions Act and AB 341

California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (2006) prompted a scoping plan from the California Air Resources Board that included mandatory commercial recycling in order to achieve a reduction of five mi...
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 Foreign

Waste Free Ontario Act

Ontario’s 2016 Bill 151, the Waste Free Ontario Act, marks a shift towards Extended Producer Responsibility for all products — e-waste, tires, packaging, compost and more. The second part of Bill 151,...
Example Executive Branch

National and State vehicle mercury programs

End of Life Vehicle Solutions is a national not-for-profit corporation formed by automobile manufacturers providing educational materials, collecting and recycling automotive switches at no cost to di...
Resource States and State Governments

Bottle Bill Resource Guide

The Container Recycling Institute’s projects at bottlebill.org and container-recycling.org document active and proposed bottle bills in the US and abroad.
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...
Example Foreign

Basic Law for Establishing a Recycling-Based Society

In the 2000 Basic Law for Establishing a Recycling-Based Society, Japan assigned basic waste management responsibilities to the national government, local governments, businesses, and citizens, and es...
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...
Example Local Governments

Brisbane CA Bag Ban

Brisbane’s Ordinance 580 requires retailers to stop giving out single-use plastic bags and instead only offer recycled-content paper or reusable bags for a minimum charge of 10 cents per bag.
Example States and State Governments

Maine’s Extended Producer Responsibility for Plastic Packaging

In July 2021, Maine became the first state in the nation to adopt a law requiring companies that create consumer packaging to pay for the costs of recycling. LD 1541 establishes an “extended producer ...
Resource Local Governments

Comparison of State Laws on Electronics Recycling

The Electronics TakeBack Coalition’s 2013 spreadsheet comparing state laws on electronics recycling provides a survey of states with producer responsibility laws and other models.
Example States and State Governments

California Recycling Market Development Act

The California Recycling Market Development Act (2019) reauthorizes a Recycling Sales Tax Exemption; reauthorizes the Recycling Market Development Zone Program; and establishes a “Statewide Commission...
Resource States and State Governments

Repair.org

Repair.org promotes legislative efforts to enshrine the right to repair in state and federal law. They have published a model state right to repair law.
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 Foreign

Report, The Circular Economy and Benefits for Society

The Club of Rome’s 2015 report, The Circular Economy and Benefits for Society, broadly explores the potential for a significant increase in resource efficiency and assesses what the main benefits for ...
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.
Example Foreign

Law on Recycling of Specified Kinds of Home Appliances

Law 97 of 1998 required consumers and retailers to return air conditioners, television, refrigerators and freezers, and washing machines and clothes dryers to manufacturers, and required manufacturers...
Model Law Congress

LPDD Model Law: Federal or State Carbon Labeling Act

Carbon footprint product labels could influence consumers to make environmentally friendly choices without substantial effort on their part, by providing more information than the consumer has at pres...
Example Local Governments

Portland’s Deconstruction Ordinance

Deconstruction ordinances catalyze local material recovery markets, reducing demand for virgin materials and creating jobs in skilled deconstruction. The City of Portland (Oregon) Deconstruction Ordin...
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 Congress

Proposed Zero Waste Act of 2019

A proposed grant funding program for organics recycling infrastructure, e-waste, source reduction, and market development.
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...
Resource States and State Governments

California’s proposed SB 54 (2019)

SB 54, The California Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act, would require all single-use plastic packaging and products be reduced or recycled by 75 percent by 2030; require all single...
Resource States and State Governments

New York’s proposed S3998B

New York’s proposed S3998B (2016) would have required manufacturers to make available parts and repair information to owners and independent repair providers in the same manner as they make these reso...
Model Law States and State Governments

MCLI Model Law – Methane from Wastewater Treatment Facilities (WWTF)

Methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas that is the second biggest contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide (CO2). One ton of CH4 emissions has the same global warming potential (GWP) as ap...
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

New York’s Digital Fair Repair Act

In late December, New York enacted the Digital Fair Repair Act, giving citizens the right to fix their phones, tablets, and computers. The Act requires original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to make ...
Example Local Governments

Honolulu Plastic Ban

Honolulu’s Bill 40, Relating to Plastic (2019), has been called one of the strongest single-use plastic ban in the nation. It was approved in December 2019. This law bans nearly all takeout plastic ov...
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...
Resource Private Entities

Report, Achieving a Circular Economy

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s 2015 report, Achieving a Circular Economy: How the Private Sector is Reimagining the Future of Business, surveys companies making investments in circular econ...
Example Foreign

Korea’s End of Life Vehicles Legislation

Korea’s 2007 Act for Resource Recycling of Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Vehicles (referred to as RoHS) creates a framework to hold producers and importers responsible for their use of resou...
Resource Local Governments

Zero Waste Design Guidelines

In support of NYC’s goal of sending zero waste to landfills by 2030, the Zero Waste Design Guidelines surveyed architects, planners, developers, city officials, waste haulers, recycling experts and bu...
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 ...
Resource Local Governments

San Antonio’s Deconstruction Ordinance

With the approval of this ordinance, San Antonio became the largest city in the country to ensure that valuable materials are salvaged for reuse instead of crushed and landfilled. The ordinance went i...
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

New Jersey Ban on Single-Use Plastic and Paper Bags

In Nov. 2020, New Jersey adopted S864, which prohibits the use of single-use plastic and paper bags in all stores and food service businesses statewide. Under the law, starting May 2022, both plastic ...
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 Foreign

UK End of Life Vehicles regulations

The UK’s End of Life Vehicles regulations transpose the EU ELV Directive through regulations passed in 2003 and 2005. The 2003 regulations include the use of improved standards for vehicle treatment s...
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...
Resource Executive Branch

EPA report, Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Emissions Through Materials and Land Management Practices

EPA’s 2009 report, Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Emissions Through Materials and Land Management Practices, assesses materials management through resource conservation and recovery methods and an...
Example Foreign

Basic Environmental Law

In the 1993 Basic Environmental Law, Japan created an environmental council tasked with drafting an environmental plan that articulates basic principles for government, corporations, and citizens to p...
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 Local Governments

Groundswell plastic foam ban list

Groundswell, a nonprofit community solar developer, maintains a list of communities across the US that have banned polystyrene foam products.
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.
Example Foreign

EU End of Life Vehicles Directive

The EU’s ELV Directive (2000-53-EC) requires that manufacturers reduce the use of hazardous substances (mercury, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, lead) when designing and producing vehicles. The Directiv...
Resource Local Governments

Model Ordinance Reducing the Use of Plastic Bags, Polystyrene, and Straws

Model local ordinance from Beyond Plastics banning the “plastics trifecta” – plastic bags, plastic straws and polystyrene – three of the biggest sources of single-use plastic pollution.
Example Local Governments

Seattle’s Deconstruction Ordinance

In Seattle, residential deconstruction permits have strict requirements: 20% minimum reuse of materials by weight, 50% minimum recycled/reused, 100% of concrete/asphalt/brick recycled/reused, and wast...
Example States and State Governments

California’s Bring-Your-Own Reusable Food and Beverage Containers Law

California’s AB 619 (2019) ends the requirement that temporary food facilities at community events provide single-use foodware and makes clear for restaurants that they may serve food and beverages in...
Resource Local Governments

Report, Disposal Bans and Mandatory Recycling in the United States

The 2017 report from the Northeast Recycling Council catalogs disposal bans and mandatory recycling laws across all 50 states.
Example Foreign

Swedish End of Life Vehicle and Producer Responsibility Regulation

Sweden adopted a 1997 Ordinance on Producer Responsibility (SFS 1997:185), which required manufacturers to accept ELVS free of charge and established a system for their management. Sweden has also ado...
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 ...
Example Local Governments

San Diego Polystyrene and Plastic bans

San Diego’s Ordinance 21030 (2019) regulates products made from polystyrene and the distribution of certain single-use straws and utensils. Under the Ordinance, vendors may not distribute plastic stra...
Model Law States and State Governments

LPDD Model Law: State Extended Producer Responsibility Legislation

This model state law addresses Extended Producer Responsibility for collection opportunities and recycling of packaging for all types of consumer products. Numerous states have developed EPR bills of ...
Example Foreign

End of Life Vehicle Law

Japan’s End of Life Vehicle Law (Law 87 of 2002) establishes a consumer paid recycling program for all four-wheel vehicles to collect chlorofluorocarbons, airbags, and shredder dust and to recycle aut...
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 States and State Governments

California’s proposed AB 1163

California’s proposed AB 1163 (2019) would require manufacturers making an express warranty with respect to an electronic or appliance product to make available sufficient service literature, at no ch...
Resource Local Governments

Surfrider database on Plastic Bag Bans and Fee, Polystyrene Ordinances

The Surfrider Foundation maintains a list of plastic bag bans and fees as well as polystyrene ordinances from across the US and internationally.
Example Foreign

Law for Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources

In 1991, Japan passed comprehensive materials usage legislation, the Law for Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources, which set out a legal framework for manufacturers outlined mandatory take-...
Example Local Governments

Portland ME bag fee

In 2014, Portland passed a 5 cent fee on paper and plastic bags.
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....
Example Foreign

Act on Promoting Green Purchasing

Japan’s Law 100 of 2000, the Act on Promoting Green Purchasing, requires government agencies develop green purchasing policies. The government has accordingly promulgated a basic policy on promoting g...
Resource Foreign

UNEP report, Global Waste Management Outlook

The UN Environment Programme’s 2015 report, Global Solid Waste Management, is a comprehensive assessment of global waste management. The six chapters inform the reader about trends, provide an analysi...
Resource Foreign

MacArthur Foundation Report, Growth Within: A Circular Economy Vision for a Competitive Europe

The MacArthur Foundation’s 2015 report, Growth Within: A Circular Economy Vision for a Competitive Europe, looks into three key European sectors – food, mobility, and the built environment – examining...
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 Foreign

Auto Recycling Netherland

Auto Recycling Netherland, established by the Dutch automobile industry, collects all scrap cars and oversees their dismantling and recycling, without cost to the last owner. Financing for this system...
Example Foreign

EU Circular Economy policy

The EU undertook an Action Plan for the Circular Economy in 2015, creating common EU targets for recycling municipal waste and reducing landfill waste. The revised legislative framework on waste enter...
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...
Model Law Local Governments

LPDD Model Resolution: Local Resolution in Support of a Circular Economy

A circular economy is an economic system that minimizes resource extraction and reduces resource use and waste by ensuring that all resources cycle indefinitely. In a circular economy, products and se...
Resource States and State Governments

Report, Extended Producer Liability in the United States

The Harvard Kennedy School’s 2013 report, Extended Producer Liability in the United States, describes the evolution of EPR policies in the United States, focusing on the role of states. In notes that ...
Resource Local Governments

Report, Promoting the Practice of Deconstruction

This document highlights 12 existing US municipalities’ deconstruction efforts and summarizes important considerations when shaping how a municipality will promote deconstruction.
Example Local Governments

Alameda County Bag Ban

The Alameda County Waste Management Authority adopted its ordinance banning plastic bags and placing a 10 cent price requirement on paper and reusable bags in January of 2012. It has been expanded in ...
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 States and State Governments

Product Stewardship Institute

The Product Stewardship Institute is a public-private partnership researching, designing, implementing, evaluating, and promoting producer responsibility laws and voluntary programs that solve recycli...
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 ...
Resource Local Governments

Californians Against Waste

Californians Against Waste is a non-profit environmental research and advocacy organization that identifies, develops, promotes and monitors policy solutions to pollution and conservation problems. Th...
Resource Congress

Report, Opportunities and Limits of CO2 Recycling in a Circular Carbon Economy

This report, part of the Carbon Management Research Initiative at Columbia University’s Center on Global Policy, examines 19 CO2 recycling pathways to understand the opportunities and the technical an...
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

California Bag Ban

In 2016, California voters approved Proposition 67, the statewide Single-Use Carryout Bag Ban. As a result, SB 270 is in effect and most grocery stores, retail stores with a pharmacy, convenience stor...
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...
Example Foreign

Law for Promotion of Sorted Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging

The 1995 Law for Promotion of Sorted Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging regulates the life-cycle management of products such as containers and packaging. It created a national recycl...
Resource Congress

Report, Clean Products Standard: A New Approach to Industrial Decarbonization

This 2020 report proposes a novel market-based standard for manufacturing, a clean products standard (CPS), which could reduce emissions from the manufacture of these GHG-intensive products. A CPS wou...
Example Local Governments

NYC Commercial Waste Zones Act (2019)

NYC’s Commercial Waste Zones Act (2019) will establish one designated waste hauler per city zone, which should incentivize private waste haulers and commercial businesses to sharply reduce the amount ...
Resource Congress

EU report on Waste Management and Recycling in Japan

The EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation prepared a 2015 report analyzing the legal regime for waste management in Japan broadly, outlining technical processes and responsible entities, providin...
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...
Resource Local Governments

Model Construction and Demolition Code

King County, Washington, developed construction and demolition code templates, available for adoption by local permitting jurisdictions, and related forms, in coordination with the Regional Code Colla...
Example Foreign

China’s Circular Economy Promotion Law

China’s Circular Economy Promotion Law (2008) requires local and provincial planners to consider circular economy issues in any planning effort. The Law calls for the state to set resource reduction g...
Example States and State Governments

California’s Single-Use Plastics Ban

In June 2022, California adopted a law requiring all plastic packaging to be recyclable or compostable by 2032. Among its other tenets, the law requires by 2032 plastic producers must reduce the amoun...
Resource Local Governments

Model Ordinance Establishing a Pay-As-You-Throw Program for Residential Municipal Solid Waste

Cities striving to meet zero-waste, climate, and other sustainability goals are increasingly realizing that waste reduction can be a key strategy to achieving their targets—in particular, reducing foo...