Massachusetts Proposed Lowering of Organics Ban Threshhold

John Fischer, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), visited LEAC in November to discuss a proposed regulatory change that lowers to .5 tons (effective October 21) the weekly generation rate of food waste for businesses to comply with a ban on organics from Massachusetts landfills. The current threshold is one ton, a drop from the original 2014 regulation of a two-ton threshold.

Fischer said DEP estimates 310,000 tons of food material were diverted from disposal in 2019 (a tripling of the amount diverted under voluntary diversion.) The number of businesses with separate food waste collection increased form 1,350 in 2014 when the one-ton threshold was implemented to 2,900 in 2019. Fischer said food rescue and donation has also grown. Unfortunately, composting has not grown due to sites having had operational issue and odor complaints, so more food scrap has instead been going to dairy farm anaerobic digestion.

USCC submitted a letter in support of lowering the threshold for the comment period ended December 4. See the letter here.