Bill Text: NJ A2090 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires each solid waste management district to develop strategy in solid waste management plan to reduce food waste.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-03-04 - Reported and Referred to Assembly State and Local Government Committee [A2090 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A2090-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
221st LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman JAMES J. KENNEDY
District 22 (Somerset and Union)
Assemblyman STERLEY S. STANLEY
District 18 (Middlesex)
Assemblyman ANTHONY S. VERRELLI
District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman Lampitt, Assemblyman Freiman, Assemblywoman Swain, Assemblyman Karabinchak and Assemblywoman Reynolds-Jackson
SYNOPSIS
Requires each solid waste management district to develop strategy in solid waste management plan to reduce food waste.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning the reduction of food waste and supplementing P.L.1970, c.39 (C.13:1E-1 et seq.).
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. No later than two years after the effective date of this section, each solid waste management district in the State shall develop and implement a strategy for reducing, by the year 2030, the amount of food waste generated annually in the district by at least 50 percent of the amount which is generated in the year this section takes effect. The strategy shall be adopted as an amendment to the district solid waste management plan required pursuant to the "Solid Waste Management Act," P.L.1970, c.39 (C.13:1E-1 et seq.) and subject to the approval of the department.
b. No later than 180 days after the effective date of this section, the department shall develop, and publish on its Internet website, a list of measures solid waste management districts can take in order to achieve the food waste reduction requirement established in subsection a. of this section. Such measures shall include, but need not be limited to, measures to increase the donation of surplus edible food, the source separation and recycling of food waste, the composting and anaerobic digestion of food waste and other food waste diversion methods that also reduce methane emissions, and public awareness campaigns.
c. As used in this section, "food waste" means food processing waste, food processing residue generated from processing and packaging operations, overripe or spoiled produce, trimmings from food, food product over-runs, soiled and unrecyclable paper, and used cooking fats, oil, and grease.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would require each solid waste management district in the State (i.e., each county and the Hackensack Meadowlands District) to develop, as part of its district solid waste management plan, a strategy to reduce food waste in the district.
Specifically, this bill would require each solid waste management district to develop and implement a strategy for reducing, by the year 2030, the amount of food waste generated annually in the district by at least 50 percent of the amount which is generated in the year this bill is enacted into law. The strategy would be adopted as an amendment to each district's solid waste management plan and subject to the approval of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
The bill would require the DEP to develop, and publish on its Internet website, a list of measures solid waste management districts can take in order to achieve the food waste reduction requirement established in the bill. These measures would include actions to prevent food waste and increase the donation of surplus edible food, the source separation and recycling of food waste, the composting and anaerobic digestion of food waste and other food waste diversion methods that also reduce methane emissions, and public awareness campaigns.
