What Happened?
Starting October 1, 2014, Massachusetts will implement a commercial food waste ban on institutions that produce more than a ton of food waste weekly. Organizations such as supermarkets, food producers and hospitals will no longer be allowed to send discarded food waste to the state’s landfill.
The Goal
The Massachusetts commercial food waste ban will apply to around 1,700 institutions statewide. These organizations will have to donate any salvageable food discards, and send the rest of the waste to an anaerobic digestion facility, a plant to convert the waste into energy or a farm for animal food.
Massachusetts enacted the ban as part of an overarching strategy to reduce waste statewide by 80 percent by 2050. The Department of Environmental Protection reports Massachusetts generated and disposed of 4.9 million tons of solid waste in 2011. Food waste alone accounted for 17 percent of this waste, and organics another 8 percent, and have thus become the target of the ban.
Because landfills take up valuable space and emit greenhouse gases, they represent an inefficient form of waste management. By keeping useful, organic materials out of landfills, Massachusetts hopes to find green sources of energy to be dispersed throughout the community.
When waste is sent to an anaerobic digestion facility, microbes bread down the material and generate biogas that can be used as an energy source for industrial processes or to create electricity. The biogas can also be applied to a combined heat and power system to produce electricity and heat at the same time. With an extra step, biogas can be transformed into compressed natural gas to fuel more efficient vehicles.
Logistics
Massachusetts is providing up to $1 million in grants and technical assistance to participating organizations involved in managing the organic waste including farms, wastewater treatment plants and anaerobic digestion facilities. The Massachusetts Water Resource Agency has been awarded $100,000 to build out its wastewater treatment plant.
In addition, the state created an outreach program to help organizations understand and comply with the new waste disposal bans. The program’s web-based resources offer technical assistance, information hotline and a database of resources. There is also a Recycling Loan Fund available for organizations interested in increasing their recycling infrastructure, with a strong focus on repurposing organic materials.
Ban on Organics
American Recycler reported there are a growing number of states and cities pushing for bans on organic waste entering landfills. Other communities banning food waste from landfills include:
- Connecticut
- Vermont
- New York City
- Seattle
- San Francisco
- Portland
In New York City, for example, a ban was placed on institutions generating more than one ton of food waste per week from dumping in landfills. The organizations must send their scraps to composting facilities or an anaerobic digester for conversion into energy. The ban is expected to alter the management of 30 percent of the city’s commercial organic waste, or 250,000 tons annually, while impacting just 5 percent of the city’s generators of food waste.
The Evolution of the Landfill
Gov1 has reported on a variety of projects that aim to reform landfill usage, many of which involve public private partnerships to enact the policies.