Funds : New York wants to improve food scrap recycling with 2 mio dollar
The funds of totaling two million dollar support the Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Act, which goes into effect in January 2022, and are part of a statewide effort to increase food donations and encourage food recycling to help prevent the landfilling of food scraps.
"This significant boost in funding comes at a critical time when many New Yorkers are struggling with food insecurity during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic," Commissioner Seggos said. "In addition to helping to address hunger in our communities, reducing food waste benefits the environment by creating useful compost and decreasing the amount of materials that would otherwise be sent to the landfill, eventually creating methane gas that contributes to climate change."
In January, DEC proposed new draft regulations to strengthen the Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Act. These regulations implement requirements for all designated food scrap generators to donate excess edible food and send food scraps to an organics recycler if one is available with 25 miles of the generator.
The act also requires generators to recycle food scraps by using organics recyclers such as composting facilities to reduce the amount of food scraps that would otherwise end up in landfills and ultimately produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas. DEC is accepting public comments on the draft regulations until April 27.