Maine lawmakers have passed a bill that bans chain supermarkets, food manufacturers and other big institutions from tossing food waste in landfills or incinerators.
Nora Bosworth, an attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation, said environmental advocates have been pushing for a food waste law in Maine for years. Maine is the only New England state without some sort of prohibition on the books, she said.
"Food is a precious commodity and should not be winding up in landfills, it should be winding up on people’s tables and in people’s backyards as compost and anaerobic digesters to create biogas," Bosworth said.
The bill would require facilities that create two tons of food waste per week on average to donate excess edible food and turn the rest over for processing by a composting company or anerobic digester.
The ban would apply to facilities that are within 20 miles of an organics recycler with available capacity.
Preventing organic matter from reaching landfills can also help reduce polluting methane, a potent greenhouse gas, Bosworth added.
"Landfills are the third greatest source of methane emissions in the country and that’s almost entirely because of food waste, so from a climate perspective this is important," she said.
A University of Maine study released last year found that the agriculture and residential sectors contributed 61% of the state's 360,000 tons of annual food loss and waste and that the problem was most prevalent in densely populated Cumberland and York counties.
Some business groups, however, are concerned Maine doesn't have enough capacity to process the extra food waste required by the law. A coalition of trade groups including the Maine Chamber of Commerce and Maine Hospital Association testified against the bill earlier this year.
"We believe further assessment of infrastructure gaps and planning should be the first step before imposing a new mandate on Maine businesses," Chamber spokesperson Katie Clark said in a statement.
Legislators in the Maine house and senate advanced the bill this week, and it is waiting for Governor Janet Mills' signature.
If enacted, the new restrictions would go into effect in 2030.
