Organic Waste Bans: Beyond the Compost Heap

Food waste and food insecurity are strange bedfellows, but in the United States they shamelessly walk hand-in-hand. The USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”) and the Emergency Food Assistance Program (“TEFAP”) are two federal programs that provide for large numbers of people in the United States. Local food recovery and donation programs serve their communities as the “backbone of the America hunger response" efforts. While many American households continue to report their struggles with food insecurity, heaping piles of good food go to waste.

The repercussions of wasted food are vast, taxing American wallets, wasting our resources with every bit thrown away, and, to a degree hotly debated, hurting the environment we depend on for the growth of the food we trash. Several states and municipalities have passed landfill bans on organic waste (“organic waste bans”) in an effort to address the pervasive food waste problem and put food to better uses.