Bill > S4097

Introduced Session

This bill would require each county to develop, as part of its district solid waste management plan, a strategy to reduce food waste in the district. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), approximately 40 percent of the United States food supply goes uneaten each year due to losses at the farm, retail, and consumer levels. The vast majority of this food waste ends up in landfills, where it takes up valuable landfill space and emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. At the same time, over 14 percent of United States households struggle to put enough food on the table, leaving 49 million Americans, including 16 million children, at risk of going hungry. It is estimated that the food saved by reducing losses by just 15 percent could feed more than 25 million Americans each year. In 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the USDA announced a national goal of reducing food waste by 50 percent by the year 2030. In 2017, the New Jersey State Legislature passed P.L.2017, c.136 (C.13:1E-226), which established a similar goal for the State. To meet that ambitious goal, this bill would require each solid waste management district in the State (i.e., each county and the Hackensack Meadowlands District) to develop and implement a strategy for reducing, by the year 2030, the amount of food waste generated annually in the district by at least 50 percent of the amount which is generated in the year this section takes effect. The strategy would be adopted as an amendment to each district's solid waste management plan and subject to the approval of the department. The bill would require the Department of Environmental protection to develop, and publish on its Internet website, a list of measures solid waste management districts can take in order to achieve the food waste reduction requirement established in the bill. These measures would include actions to prevent food waste and increase the donation of surplus edible food, the source separation and recycling of food waste, composting and anaerobic digestion of food waste, and public awareness campaigns.

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Bob Smith (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Environment and Energy Committee (on 09/10/2019)

Official Document