Massachusetts Has the Nation’s Only Successful Food Waste Ban

A study published in Science reveals that Massachusetts is the only state where a food waste ban has successfully curbed the amount of food waste that goes to landfills.

As Kristin Toussaint explains in Fast Company, food waste bans seek to cut down on methane emissions caused by organic matter in landfills. However, laws passed in California, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont haven’t been nearly as effective as the one in Massachusetts, where the state achieved a 13.2 percent reduction in waste and a 25.7 percent decrease in methane emissions per ton of waste.

The researchers identified three reasons for the success of the state’s food waste ban: “a simple law with a small number of exemptions; a robust network of composting infrastructure so it was easy and affordable for businesses to compost rather than trash their food waste; and an enforcement system.”

According to the researchers, “Massachusetts, the researchers found, had more than triple the number of inspections per business that generated food waste than the next closest state, which was Vermont,” the most facilities to process food waste, and a clear law that applies to all businesses that generate more than half a ton of food waste per week.