When food ends up in landfills, it releases large amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas much more potent than carbon dioxide. A state law that goes into effect early next year aims to cut that source. The Department of Environmental Services is ramping up to implement the law that, starting in February, will prohibit 鈥渁ny person鈥� generating one ton or more of food waste per week to dispose of that waste in a landfill or incinerate it. There are exemptions if the person is further than 20 miles from an alternative facility or if there isn鈥檛 ample capacity at the facility to accept the waste.
The law has an order of preference in how that excess food waste should be managed. The most preferred choice is to reduce the amount of waste that is generated in the first place. The second is for it to be consumed by humans and, third, by animals. Next is composting, digestion (which uses specialized bacteria to break down the organic matter), and land application, and last is 鈥渆nergy recovery not involving combustion.鈥�
Rep. Karen Ebel, a New London Democrat, is chair of the state鈥檚 Solid Waste Working Group and brought the legislation for the ban in 2023. She said it was a step toward the state鈥檚 goal to reduce the weight going into landfills by 25 percent by 2030 and 45 percent by 2050. 鈥淥ne of the heaviest things that goes into landfills, and also the contributor of one-third of the weight that goes into landfills, is food,鈥� Ebel said. 鈥溾�� As part of the waste diversion goal, we targeted food waste as a really good place to start.鈥�