Massachusetts commercial food waste ban goes effective on Oct 1, 2014

WASHINGTON (Scrap Monster) : Massachusetts will implement the statewide commercial food waste disposal ban, effective Oct 1, 2014. According to the news release from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the ban will divert food waste into energy-generating and composting facilities and reduce the waste stream.

The ban will require any entity that disposes of at least one ton of organic material per week to donate or re-purpose the useable food. Any remaining food waste will be shipped to an anaerobic digestion (AD) facility, where it will be converted to clean energy, or sent to composting and animal-feed operations.

According to statistics, food materials and organics constitute 25% of the current waste stream. Massachusetts aims to reduce the waste stream by 30% by 2020 and 80% by 2050. The ban is expected to affect approximately 1,700 businesses and institutions across the state. However, food waste from small businesses and residential food waste are not included in the ban.

MassDEP has established the “RecyclingWorks in Massachusetts” program to help businesses and institutions increase recycling and comply with the Massachusetts waste disposal bans. MassDEP also provide technical and financial assistance to municipalities and is adding funding to the existing Recycling Loan Fund to support projects to grow infrastructure for managing organic materials.

The ban was proposed by Massachusetts DEP during last July.