Add Art 27 Title 34 §§27-3401 - 27-3405, amd §27-0107, En Con L
 
Enacts the state and local government food waste prevention and diversion act; requires facilities generating excess food waste to take measures to minimize such waste.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A4143
SPONSOR: Epstein
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to
prevention and diversion of food waste
 
PURPOSE:
To require that food service facilities operated by State agencies,
municipalities, local education agencies, or their contractors or
lessees prevent and divert food waste by participating in food donation
and other organics recovery programs.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one of the bill establishes the short title of "State and Local
Government Food Waste Prevention and Diversion Act."
Section two of the bill amends article 27 of the environmental conserva-
tion law by adding a new title 28 which would require that covered food
service establishments manage their excess unused food, food scraps, and
organic waste by first minimizing their generation, and then diverting
them from disposal by a series of options. After minimizing generation,
the highest waste prevention and diversion priority would be donation of
excess wholesome food to programs feeding people, especially the food
insecure. Other options include providing food and food scraps as animal
feed, and processing remaining organics into soil amendment or other
useful products through composting, anaerobic digestion, and other
value-adding methods.
Covered food service establishments would be those operated by State
agencies, departments, boards, public benefit corporations, public
authorities or commissions, municipalities, local education agencies, or
their contractors or lessees, that prepare and provide food directly to
consumers, and that generate, from food preparation and service as aver-
aged over the course of the previous ten weeks: beginning in 2018, over
two thousand pounds of food waste per week; beginning in 2020, over one
thousand pounds of food waste per week; and beginning in 2022, over five
hundred pounds of food waste per week.
If the cost to comply with any portion of the food waste prevention and
diversion priorities outlined above is excessive, this section also
provides a process by which a covered food service establishment may be
granted a temporary waiver from complying with that portion.
Additionally, section two of the bill requires the Department of Envi-
ronmental Conservation (DEC) to promote the actions that covered food
service establishments are required to take, and to encourage the public
to better manage excess food, food scraps, and organic waste as well.
Toward this end, the DEC is authorized to collect and report information
to promote improved food and organic waste prevention and diversion.
Section three of the bill requires that local solid waste management
plans include information on current food and organic waste management
efforts and their capacity in the respective area of the planning unit.
Section four of the bill establishes the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, food waste
comprises approximately 14 percent of the municipal solid waste gener-
ated each year in the United States, or about 34 million tons.
Every day, food service providers such as hospitals, universities, cafe-
terias, restaurants, and food preparation companies must address what to
do with surplus or leftover food and other organic waste generated in
their operations. This includes food waste, food scraps, prepared foods,
produce, bakery and dairy items, meat, and other organics. There are
many ways food service providers can reduce waste, reduce costs, improve
the environment, provide benefits to communities, and otherwise realize
savings by reducing, reusing, and recycling uneaten or unused food and
other discarded, organic materials rather than sending them to land-
fills.
New York State's Solid Waste Management Plan, entitled "Beyond Waste"
published in December 2010, included a programmatic recommendation for
the state to "lead by example" by demonstrating sustainable materials
management within its own operations, specifically indicating organics
recovery as a major component. This bill would require that certain
facilities operated by state agencies, counties, municipalities, local
education agencies, or their contractors recover excess foods and other
organics residuals to the greatest extent practicable. In doing so,
covered facilities would prevent waste and divert discarded organics
from landfills, thereby conserving resources and providing models for
other facilities and organizations to establish their own effective
means of sustainable operation and organic waste management.
In addition to reducing as much as possible the amount of food waste
generated, covered food service establishments will be required to
divert organic materials from disposal in descending order of priority,
in line with the EPA's Food Recovery Hierarchy: donation to programs
feeding people, especially the food insecure; providing food and food
scraps as animal feed; and finally, processing remaining organic materi-
als into useful value-added products for industry, agriculture, horti-
culture, or other beneficial applications (e.g. biodiesel, biogas,
soaps; composts or other soil amendments)
(http://www.epa.gov/foodrecovery/).
Anyone donating food pursuant to this law would be protected from
liability under the agricultural and markets law, which exempts a good
faith donor of food from liability if the donor has reasonably inspected
the food and found it fit for consumption.
Apart from environmental and resource conservation benefits, food waste
prevention and organic waste diversion practices also promote the devel-
opment of sustainable jobs. Requiring diversion of organic waste from
landfills by the largest government generators of food waste, and their
contractors and lessees, and requiring promotion and further reporting
of food and organic waste management by government actors will help
improve such practices and spur much needed infrastructure development
across the state.
 
FISCAL IMPACT ON THE STATE:
Facilities recovering organics may experience a slight cost in first
establishing programs with likely short-term return on investment and
long-term savings (primarily through reduced procurement and disposal
costs) as food preparation, sorting, and collection gain in efficiency.
 
FISCAL IMPACT ON LOCALITIES:
Facilities recovering organics may experience a slight cost in first
establishing programs with likely short-term return on investment and
long-term savings (primarily through reduced procurement and disposal
costs) as food preparation, sorting, and collection gain in efficiency.
IMPACT ON REGULATION OF BUSINESSES AND INDIVIDUALS:
None
 
IMPACT ON FINES, IMPRISONMENT, FORFEITURE OF RIGHTS, OR OTHER PENAL
SANCTIONS:
None
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2021-2022: A5747 (Rozic) - Referred to Environmental Conservation
2020: A4788 (Rozic) - Environmental Conservation
2019: A4788 (Rozic) - Environmental Conservation
2018: A9693 (Rozic) - Environmental Conservation
2017: A3412 (Kavanagh) - Environmental Conservation
2016: A7905 (Kavanagh) - Environmental Conservation
2015: A7905 (Kavanagh) - Environmental Conservation
2014: A9959A (Kavanagh) - Environmental Conservation
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the first of the month following the one
hundred eightieth day after it shall have become a law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
4143
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 10, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. EPSTEIN, OTIS, SEAWRIGHT -- read once and
referred to the Committee on Environmental Conservation
AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to
prevention and diversion of food waste
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
2 the "state and local government food waste prevention and diversion
3 act".
4 § 2. Article 27 of the environmental conservation law is amended by
5 adding a new title 34 to read as follows:
6 TITLE 34
7 STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT FOOD WASTE PREVENTION AND DIVERSION
8 ACT
9 Section 27-3401. Definitions.
10 27-3403. Required state and municipal food service organics
11 waste management.
12 27-3405. Powers of municipalities.
13 § 27-3401. Definitions.
14 For the purposes of this title, the following terms shall have the
15 following meanings:
16 1. "Agency" means any state department, agency, board, public benefit
17 corporation, public authority, or commission.
18 2. "Compostable" means all the materials in the product or package
19 will (a) undergo degradation by biological processes during composting
20 to yield carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass at a
21 rate consistent with other known compostable materials and (b) leave no
22 visible, distinguishable or toxic residue, including no adverse impact
23 on the ability of composts to support plant growth once the finished
24 compost is placed in soil.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02582-01-3
A. 4143 2
1 3. "Contractors" and "lessees" mean any person or entity that has a
2 contract with an agency, municipality or local education agency for
3 public works or improvements to be performed, for a franchise, conces-
4 sion or lease of property, for grant monies or goods and services or
5 supplies to be purchased at the expense of the agency, municipality or
6 local education agency or to be paid out of monies deposited in the
7 treasury or out of trust monies under the control or collected by the
8 agency, municipality or local education agency.
9 4. "Covered food service establishment" means any premises or part of
10 a premises to which all of the following apply:
11 (a) it is operated by an agency, municipality, local education agency,
12 or any contractor or lessee of an agency, municipality, or local educa-
13 tion agency;
14 (b) it generates, from its food preparation and service, as averaged
15 over the course of the previous ten weeks:
16 (i) in two thousand twenty-three and two thousand twenty-four, over
17 two thousand pounds of food waste per week;
18 (ii) in two thousand twenty-five and two thousand twenty-six, over one
19 thousand pounds of food waste per week; and
20 (iii) in two thousand twenty-seven and thereafter, over five hundred
21 pounds of food waste per week; and
22 (c) it is located where food is prepared and provided directly to the
23 consumer, whether such food is provided free of charge or sold, and
24 whether consumption occurs on or off the premises. "Covered food service
25 establishments" shall include, but not be limited to, the following
26 which also meet the conditions of this paragraph and paragraphs (a) and
27 (b) of this subdivision: full-service restaurants, fast food restau-
28 rants, cafes, delicatessens, coffee shops, and cafeterias, but shall not
29 include retail food stores, convenience stores, pharmacies and mobile
30 food vending units.
31 5. "Excess food" means food that is not required to meet the needs of
32 the covered food service establishment.
33 6. "Local education agency" means a school district, board of cooper-
34 ative educational services, community college, agricultural and techni-
35 cal college, state university of New York college of technology and a
36 center for advanced technology designated pursuant to section three
37 thousand one hundred two-a of the public authorities law, and other
38 postsecondary provider of career education as set forth annually by the
39 commissioner as eligible recipients under the federal vocational educa-
40 tion act of nineteen hundred eighty-four.
41 7. "Municipality" means a village, town, city, or county, or any
42 designated agency thereof.
43 8. "Organic" means materials produced by or from living organisms.
44 9. "Organic waste" means readily degradable organic material includ-
45 ing, but not limited to, food waste, soiled or unrecyclable paper, and
46 yard waste in combination with any of the former materials. It does not
47 include biosolids, sludge, or septage.
48 § 27-3403. Required state and municipal food service organics waste
49 management.
50 1. Any covered food service establishment shall do the following:
51 (a) To the greatest extent practicable, minimize its generation of
52 excess, unused foods in addition to food scraps and organic waste
53 including, but not limited to, food trimmings and packaging;
54 (b) To the greatest extent practicable, reduce the need for disposal
55 of its generated excess, unused food, food scraps and any other compost-
A. 4143 3
1 able or organic waste, by providing it for the following purposes, in
2 descending order of priority:
3 (i) feeding or distributing excess, unused, apparently wholesome food
4 to people, such as the food insecure, through local voluntary community
5 not-for-profit food assistance or similar programs as authorized by
6 state and federal law;
7 (ii) feeding excess, unused food, or food scraps to animals as feed as
8 authorized by state and federal law;
9 (iii) composting, anaerobic digestion, or other processing of food,
10 food waste, or organic waste to generate soil amendment or other
11 products for use in agricultural, horticultural, manufacturing, or other
12 applications;
13 (c) Effectuate paragraph (b) of this subdivision by doing the follow-
14 ing:
15 (i) for management of excess foods or food scrap pursuant to subpara-
16 graphs (i) and (ii) of paragraph (b) of this subdivision, other than
17 those managed on-site, transfer, or arrange for such transfer, to
18 locations intended for their consumption or from which they will be
19 distributed for ultimate consumption; and
20 (ii) for management of organic wastes pursuant to subparagraph (iii)
21 of paragraph (b) of this subdivision, by taking actions to (A) source
22 separate organic wastes from other waste and subscribe to a basic level
23 of recycling service that includes their collection and recycling; (B)
24 recycle its organic wastes on-site or self-haul them for recycling; or
25 (C) subscribe to an organic waste recycling service that may include
26 mixed waste processing that specifically recycles organic waste.
27 (d) Provide collection and educational resources, including regular
28 periodical guidance, training, updates, signage, and flyers, for its
29 workforce and the public for the purposes of teaching and retaining
30 effective procedures for sorting materials for organics and other recy-
31 cling.
32 2. Each covered food service establishment may provide to its munici-
33 pality, planning unit, or the department, information on its practices,
34 including amounts of excess food, food scraps, or organic waste managed
35 by various methods such as those implemented pursuant to subdivision one
36 of this section, entities or resources utilized for reducing and manag-
37 ing such materials, or financing mechanisms and incentives utilized.
38 3. If the cost for a covered food service establishment to comply with
39 the requirements of paragraph (c) of subdivision one of this section for
40 any or all portions of excess food, food scraps, or organic waste
41 exceeds fifteen percent of the cost of its disposal by landfill or
42 incineration, the covered food service establishment may request from
43 the commissioner a waiver of the requirements for the portions, based on
44 documented efforts to comply. The commissioner shall review the request
45 and, if validated, grant the waiver for a period of no greater than
46 twenty-four months.
47 4. The provisions of this section shall not apply to contracts in
48 effect on the effective date of this section; provided, however, that
49 the provisions of this section shall apply to all renewals or extensions
50 of such contracts entered into on or after the effective date of this
51 section.
52 5. In the event that two or more covered food service establishments
53 share a common physical facility and share services such as
54 waste/recycling collection and hauling, dining areas and/or restrooms,
55 all facilities shall be considered to be one covered food service estab-
A. 4143 4
1 lishment for the purpose of calculating the amount of food waste as
2 provided in subdivision four of section 27-3401 of this title.
3 6. The department shall promote actions for covered food service
4 establishments to take pursuant to the requirements of subdivision one
5 of this section, and for all entities and the public to take in efforts
6 to manage excess food, food scraps, and organic waste in a similar
7 manner.
8 7. The department may collect and report information to promote
9 improved management of excess food, food scraps and organic waste,
10 including information on practices by covered food establishments, other
11 entities and the public, or lists of entities and resources providing
12 assistance for reducing such materials, facilities accepting such mate-
13 rials, or financing mechanisms and incentives available for recovery
14 practices and facilities.
15 § 27-3405. Powers of municipalities.
16 Any agency, municipality or local education agency may promulgate
17 regulations, ordinances, or laws to take any and all reasonable actions
18 necessary to implement and enforce this title. This title does not limit
19 the authority of a local governmental agency to adopt, implement, or,
20 enforce requirements on management of excess food, food scraps, and
21 organic waste that are more stringent or comprehensive than the require-
22 ments of this title.
23 § 3. Paragraph (c) of subdivision 1 of section 27-0107 of the environ-
24 mental conservation law, as added by chapter 70 of the laws of 1988, is
25 amended to read as follows:
26 (c) Such plan shall take into account the objectives of the state
27 solid waste management policy, provide for or take into account manage-
28 ment of all solid waste within the planning unit, and embody, as may be
29 appropriate to the circumstances, sound principles of solid waste
30 management, natural resources conservation, energy production, and
31 employment creating opportunities, including but not limited to:
32 (i) description of efforts of the planning unit, or any of the munici-
33 palities therein, to facilitate, participate, or assist in the manage-
34 ment of excess food, food scraps, and other organic waste in the solid
35 waste stream including, but not limited to, description of programs
36 providing (A) assistance with reducing the amount of excess food, food
37 scraps, and organic waste generated, (B) excess food to entities for
38 feeding the food insecure, (C) excess food and food scraps for feeding
39 animals, and (D) food and other organic waste to process and generate
40 soil amendment or other products for use in agricultural, horticultural,
41 manufacturing, or other applications; and
42 (ii) assessment and description of (A) known entities accepting excess
43 food donations for the purpose of providing nourishment to the food
44 insecure and estimated amounts, according to any useful categories, such
45 as perishable and non-perishable, that are available, (B) known entities
46 that accept excess food and food scraps for feeding animals, and esti-
47 mated amounts, according to available useful categories, and (C) known
48 entities that accept food and other organic waste to process and gener-
49 ate soil amendment or other products, and estimated amounts, according
50 to available useful categories.
51 § 4. This act shall take effect on the first of the month following
52 the one hundred eightieth day after it shall have become a law.