Bill > A1861

Introduced Session

This bill would require each solid waste management district in the State (i.e., each county and the Hackensack Meadowlands District) to develop, as part of its district solid waste management plan, a strategy to reduce food waste in the district. Specifically, the bill would require each solid waste management district to develop and implement a strategy for reducing, by the year 2035, the amount of food waste generated annually in the district by at least 50 percent of the amount which was generated in 2022. The strategy would be adopted as an amendment to each district's solid waste management plan, or through an administrative action, and would be subject to the approval of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The bill would require the DEP 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, the composting and anaerobic digestion of food waste and other food waste diversion methods that also reduce methane emissions, and public awareness campaigns. The bill would also require the DEP to adopt rules and regulations to create a tiered regulatory structure for composting facilities, based on the framework established in the Solid Waste Management Act, in order to facilitate the use of organic waste recycling facilities in the State.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Jim Kennedy (D)*,  Sterley Stanley (D)*,  Anthony Verrelli (D)*,  Clinton Calabrese (D),  Alixon Collazos-Gill (D),  Roy Freiman (D),  Robert Karabinchak (D),  Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D),  Lisa Swain (D), 

Withdrawn Because Approved P.L.2025, c.228. (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document