Legislation Watch

USA Canada

We know that diverting organic waste is vital to reducing methane emissions and improving our soils. Legislation is being put into action all over the world to direct food scraps and other organic waste away from landfills and towards composters.

Legislation elsewhere is requiring packaging sold to be recyclable or certified compostable leading the way toward a circular bioeconomy. Below is a list of legislations in the USA and Canada. Find out what legislation is applicable to where you live, or read on to encourage your representatives to take similar steps.

United States

Location

Description

Enforcement

Austin, Texas

Universal Recycling Ordiannce (Austin City Code Ch. 15-6)

Mandatory for residents and businesses

Requires commercial business owners and multifamily properties to ensure that all commercial tenants, multifamily residents and employees have access to recycling, and food-permitted businesses to ensure that all employees have convenient access to diversion methods that keep organic materials out of landfills. Organic material can include unused food, food scraps and food-soiled paper.
Violations of the URO (Austin City Code Chapter 15-6) are a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by fines up to $2,000 per day, per offense.

Boulder, Colorado

Universal Zero Waste Ordinance

Mandatory for residents and businesses

Requires all properties in Boulder to have separated compost, recycling and trash service. All businesses must provide correctly placed collection containers have required signs, train employees on proper sorting. All property owners, both residential and commercial, must subscribe to compost, recycling and trash collection service regularly provide occupants information on where bins are located.

If compliance is not achieved within 14 days of Code Enforcement opening an investigation, a fine of $500 will be assessed, followed by second fine of $1000, then fines of $2000 for each occurrence if compliance is not reached upon subsequent 14-day inspections.

California

SB1383

Mandatory for residents and businesses

Cities, counties, and other jurisdictions are required decrease their methane gas emissions by reducing the amount of organic waste they deposit in landfills by 75%.

Jurisdictions will still need to procure 30% of their targeted recovered organic waste products by January 1, 2023, 65% by January 1, 2024, and 100% by January 1, 2025.

SB 54

In Progress/Mandatory for business

Requires packaging sold in the state to be recyclable or certified compostable by 2032 and establishes an extended producer responsibility (EPR) program to fund reuse, recycling, and compost throughout the state. 

The bill would provide for its enforcement, including authorizing the department to impose an administrative civil penalty in an amount not to exceed $50,000 per day per violation, except as specified, on any entity that is not in compliance with the act’s requirements. The bill would require the department to deposit collected penalties into the Circular Economy Penalty Account, which the bill would create.

SB1046

In Progress/Mandatory for business

Ban on single-use plastic produce bags. Instead, shoppers can use either recycled paper bags or certified compostable bags.

Effective Jan 1, 2025

Connecticut

Chapter 446d

Mandatory for businesses

Requires waste generators to source-separate their organic materials, then either (a) compost or treat source-separated organic materials on-site using permitted equipment, or (b) ensure that such source-separated organic materials are recycled at an authorized source-separated organic material composting facility. Generators are affected by the mandate if they are located within 20 miles of an authorized source-separated organic material composting facility, but only if the facility has available capacity and is willing to accept such material. At this time institutions such as schools, universities, and prisons to recycle food scraps, are not required due to anticipated disposal cost savings.
N/A

Maryland

HB0264

Mandatory for residents and businesses effective now

Requires certain waste generators within 30 miles of a composting facility to either reduce, divert to food rescue organizations, farms for animal feed operations, or compost or anaerobically digest the residuals.
N/A

Massachusetts

House Bill 1114

Voluntary for residents and businesses

Aims to halve food waste in Washington state by 2030, relative to 2015 levels in order to:
(1) Prevent and reduce the wasting of edible food by residents and businesses
(2) Help match and support the capacity for edible food that would otherwise be wasted with food banks and other distributors that will ensure the food reaches those who need it; and
(3) Support productive uses of inedible food materials, including using it for animal feed, energy production through anaerobic digestion, or other commercial uses, and for off-site or on-site management systems including composting, vermicomposting, or other biological systems.
N/A

New York, New York

NYC Commercial Organics Law

Mandatory for businesses

Requires large generators of food scraps (generators of more than 2 tons of wasted food and food scraps per week on average) to redirect wholesome edible food to those in need and food scraps to organics recycling facilities where they will be recycled into a product beneficial to our environment. Large generators of food scraps must:
• Separate and donate edible food
• Separate and recycle all remaining food scraps if within 25 miles of an organics recycler
No fines issued until July 31, 2022

Bill 8428

In progress

Provides that bags exempt from bag waste reduction shall not be tinted green or brown unless it is a compostable bag.
N/A

Portland, Oregon

AR 5.15-4000

Voluntary / In progress for businesses

Requires the largest food service businesses to separate their food scraps from other garbage.
N/A

Vermont

Vermont Universal Recycling Law (Act 148)

Mandatory for residents and businesses

State law bans food scraps from the trash or landfills.
N/A

Seattle, Washington

Seattle Municipal Code sections 21.36.082 and 21.36.083

Mandatory for residents, multi-residential, and commercial

All food and food-soiled paper products such as paper towels, paper napkins, and cardboard must be composted.

Multi-Family Residences: After two warnings, properties may receive a $50 fee on their waste bill for recyclables in the garbage. 

Commercial: The ordinances specify that a fee may be applied to a solid waste account when more than 10% of the garbage container (by volume) contains prohibited materials, food waste, food-soiled paper, and/or recyclables.

Washington State

House Bill 1114

Voluntary for residents and businesses

Aims to halve food waste in Washington state by 2030, relative to 2015 levels in order to:
(1) Prevent and reduce the wasting of edible food by residents and businesses
(2) Help match and support the capacity for edible food that would otherwise be wasted with food banks and other distributors that will ensure the food reaches those who need it; and
(3) Support productive uses of inedible food materials, including using it for animal feed, energy production through anaerobic digestion, or other commercial uses, and for off-site or on-site management systems including composting, vermicomposting, or other biological systems.
N/A

House Bill 1799

Requirement for local government and some businesses

This diversion is supported by requiring some local governments to begin providing separated organic material collection services, requiring local governments to consider state organic material management goals/requirements in their local solid waste plans, requiring some businesses to not landfill their organic wastes, reducing legal liability risk barriers to the donation of edible food, establishing the Washington Center for Sustainable Food Management, establishing various new funding and financial incentives, facilitating the siting of organic material management facilities, requiring local governments to procure more compost and finished products , and improving standards related to the labeling of plastic and compostable products in order to reduce contamination of the waste.

Begins July 1st, 2024

Statewide Single-Use Plastic Bag Ban

Requirement for all businesses

Washington’s Plastic Bag Ban will reduce pollution by prohibiting single-use plastic carryout bags and charging a fee for acceptable bags in businesses. EcoSafe’s certified compostable checkout bags are a great alternative but first, reach out to your local composting facility to ensure they are accepted.

Begins October 2021

Canada

Ontario

Waste-Free Ontario Strategy

Voluntary (in progress) for residents and businesses

Through the Environment Act and the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act (EGSPA), the Nova Scotia Government is committed to maintaining a goal of 50% waste diversion and to reach a target for waste disposal of no more than 300 kilograms per person per year (kg/per/yr) by the year 2015
Plan to launch in 2022

Nova Scotia

Materials Banned from Disposal Sites in Nova Scotia

Mandatory for residents and businesses

Through the Environment Act and the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act (EGSPA), the Nova Scotia Government is committed to maintaining a goal of 50% waste diversion and to reach a target for waste disposal of no more than 300 kilograms per person per year (kg/per/yr) by the year 2015
N/A

PEI

Waste Watch source-separation program

Mandatory for residents and businesses

Requires residents to use a three-stream separation program so that all recyclable products are recovered for recycling and organic waste is recovered for composting.
N/A

Food loss and waste occur at each stage of the supply chain. The biggest proportion (about 37%) happens in the home.

ReFED, 2021