CONCORD — Food waste accounts for 24.1 percent of all municipal solid waste generated in the United States, with the U.S Department of Agriculture estimating that between 30 and 40 percent of the food supply ends up being thrown away.
That is why, at both its initial meeting a year ago and on November 18, as the legislatively created Solid Waste Working Group prepared its report for 2022, members spent a great deal of time talking about how to incentivize or require those at the retail and consumer level to find ways of diverting food waste from the state’s landfills.
The working group is a self-directed, autonomous collection of volunteers whose five-year mission is to assist the state Department of Environmental Services in long-range planning and to make recommendations for changes in the existing solid waste reduction, recycling, and management policies. It is charged with submitting an initial report on November 30, 2022, and a final report on November 1, 2026.
The Solid Waste Working Group was established through House Bill 413, with representation from the House, the Senate, the Waste Management Council, owners of in-state landfills, in-state solid waste haulers, companies that reprocess waste into products, the Northeast Resource Recovery Association, cities with single-stream recycling, rural communities doing source separation, the healthcare industry, the Northeast Recycling Council, the Department of Business and Economic Affairs, and the DES.
Besides food waste, the group wanted to focus on toxic substances, especially PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) that have become ubiquitous in food packaging, foundation makeup, lipstick, and carpeting. PFAS have proven to be useful in providing heat resistance, oil repellency, and waterproofing benefits, but direct and indirect exposure has been proven to be detrimental to people’s health.
Representative Karen Ebel (D-New London), who serves as chair of the working group, said she plans to introduce legislation on both issues, and she sought suggestions and support from the members. Several, however, were reluctant to make a formal recommendation on legislation that could affect their own businesses.
Instead, the group identified the issues as being of concern and suggested a legislative solution.
Few places accept meat and dairy waste, and the state lacks the infrastructure to make food diversion happen. Ebel noted that New Hampshire is alone among the New England states in failing to have a food diversion program in place.
She referred to Vermont’s laws, which prioritize providing surplus food to families in need and requiring the other food waste to be composted or otherwise handled outside the solid waste stream. She noted that other states started by regulating the large producers of food waste, and said her draft legislation would target those generating a ton a week.
“They would be required to compost if there was a facility within 50 miles of their business,” she said.
Rep. Howard Pearl (R-Loudon) noted that the large food chains such as DeMoulas already have systems in place to take care of their surplus food.
In order to incentivize companies and municipalities to put solid waste diversion programs in place, the state had hoped to obtain grant money for a fund the legislature established this session. The original bill included money to get the effort going, but the money was stripped from the bill as it made its way through the legislative session.
Ebel suggested that the state should earmark $1 million for the program in its next budget, agreeing with Pearl that the money should be available to the private sector as well as communities. It would be private companies that would build the needed facilities, they said.
As for PFAS, while carpets are not the top sources of in-home exposure, they are the easiest to address, Ebel said. They also are among the heaviest items that end up at the transfer stations.
Carpets often contain PFAS to protect against stains and water damage, but through vacuuming, walking across the floor, and children crawling on the carpets, the chemicals are released into the air and into the lungs.
In discussions with other members, the consensus was that banning carpets would be the wrong approach because it left open where old carpets would end up. Instead, the state could eliminate them at the source though a ban on the sale of carpets containing PFAS.
The working group’s report, which still needs revision to include references to the appropriate laws, states, in part, “Food Waste & Waste Disposal Bans: Efforts to reduce and divert waste should focus on high-volume and weight materials. … The SWWG will review and make recommendations regarding ways to increase diversion of food waste in New Hampshire, which may include waste disposal bans ….
“Toxicity: Consistent with Goal 2 of the Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP), the SWWG will discuss and make recommendations relative to ways to reduce the toxicity of the waste stream such as PFAS through source reduction, including legislation.”
The group meets next in January, when it plans to continue examining solid waste issues and how the DES can oversee the state’s diversion goals.
This story originally appeared in the Laconia Daily Sun.