Relates to prevention and diversion of food waste

Section two of the bill amends article 27 of the environmental conservation law by adding a new title 28 which would require that covered food service establishments manage their excess unused food, food scraps, and organic waste by minimizing their generation and then diverting them from disposal by choosing from a series of options. After minimizing generation, the highest waste prevention and diversion priority would be donation of excess wholesome food to programs feeding people faced with food insecurity. Additional methods of prevention and diversion include providing food and food scraps as animal feed, and processing remaining organics into soil amendment or other useful products through composting, anaerobic digestion, and other value-adding methods.

Pursuant to this bill, covered food service establishments includes those operated by State agencies, departments, boards, public benefit corporations, public authorities, or commissions or their contractors or lessees, that prepare and provide food directly to consumers, and that generate, from food preparation and service as averaged over the course of the previous ten weeks: beginning in 2016, over two thousand pounds of food waste per week; beginning in 2018, over one thousand pounds of food waste per week; and beginning in 2020, over five hundred pounds of food waste per week.

This section also provides a process by which a covered food service establishment may be granted a temporary waiver from complying with that portion if the compliance cost with any portion of the food waste prevention and diversion priorities is determined to be excessive.

Section two requires the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to promote the actions that covered food service establishments are required to take, and to encourage the public to better manage excess food, food scraps, and organic waste as well. The DEC is authorized to collect and report information to promote improved food and organic waste prevention and diversion.

Section three of the bill requires that state solid waste management plans include information on current food and organic waste management efforts and their capacity in the respective area of the planning unit.

Section four of the bill establishes the effective date.

Justification

Food waste makes up approximately 14 percent of the municipal solid waste generated each year in the United States, or about 34 million tons, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. New York State's December 2010 Solid Waste Management Plan, entitled "Beyond Waste", included a recommendation for the state to demonstrate

sustainable materials management within its own operations, specifically indicating organics recovery as a major component.

Under this bill, covered state food service establishments will be required to divert organic materials from disposal in descending order of priority, in line with the EPA's Food Recovery Hierarchy: donation to programs feeding people, especially the food insecure; providing food and food scraps as animal feed; and finally, processing remaining organic materials into useful value-added products for industry, agriculture, horticulture, or other beneficial applications (e.g. biodiesel, biogas, soaps, composts or other soil amendments) (http://www.epa.gov/foodrecovery/).

Food waste prevention and organic waste diversion practices promotes sustainable jobs. Requiring diversion of organic waste from landfills by the largest state government generators of food waste, and their contractors and lessees will help improve such practices. This bill would require that certain facilities operated by state agencies or their contractors recover excess foods and other organics residuals to the extent practicable. This bill would prevent waste and divert discarded organics from landfills.

Prior legislative history

New bill

Fiscal impact on the state

Facilities recovering organics may experience a slight cost in first establishing programs with expected short-term return on investment and long-term savings (primarily through reduced procurement and disposal costs) as food preparation, sorting, and collection gain in efficiency.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the first of the month following the one hundred eightieth day after it shall have become a law.