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OLR Bill Analysis
sHB 5577
AN ACT CONCERNING SURPLUS FOOD DONATION AND
ESTABLISHING FOOD COMPOSTING REQUIREMENTS.
SUMMARY
Under this bill, by January 1, 2024, the Department of Energy and
Environmental Protection (DEEP) commissioner must require each
municipality to (1) separate source-separated organic materials and (2)
have them recycled at authorized composting facilities with available
capacity that will accept them.
The bill requires the commissioner, by October 1, 2023, to amend
DEEP’s regulations that designate (i.e., mandate) certain items to be
recycled by (1) expanding the list of designated recyclables to add food
scraps and (2) including best practices for residential customers to
separate food scraps from other solid waste and other designated
recyclables. It authorizes municipalities to impose a per-violation $50
fine for residential property owners who fail to separate designated
recyclables from other solid waste. Additionally, the bill requires those
who generate solid waste from non-residential properties to separate
food scraps from other solid waste beginning October 1, 2023.
The bill also requires each commercial food wholesaler or distributor,
industrial food manufacturer or processor, supermarket, resort, and
conference center in the state to adopt, by written policy, a food
donation program. The program must be designed to (1) reduce food
waste and (2) support food relief organizations’ (FROs) operations.
Lastly, the bill corrects a statutory reference in the commercial
penalty for failing to separate designated recyclables from other solid
waste and makes technical changes.
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2023, except the provisions on 2023HB-05577-R000266-BA.DOCX
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designated recyclables take effect upon passage.
DESIGNATED RECYCLABL ES: FOOD SCRAPS
The bill requires the DEEP commissioner to amend department
regulations that designate certain items to be recycled to include food
scraps. Under current law and regulations, designated recyclables
include things like cardboard, boxboard, glass and metal food
containers, containers of three gallons or less made of certain plastics,
scrap metal, certain white and colored paper, and other items (Conn.
Agencies Regs. § 22a-241b-1 et seq.).
Existing law, unchanged by the bill, requires municipalities to recycle
designated recyclables within six months after there is an available
service by a regional processing center or local processing system (i.e.,
service providers). Together with the designated recyclable’s expansion
to include food scraps, the bill adds authorized source-separated
organic material composting facilities and other composting facilities to
this list of service providers.
FOOD DONATION POLICY
The written food donation policy that the bill requires wholesalers,
distributors, manufacturers, processors, supermarkets, resorts, and
conference centers to adopt must be designed to (1) reduce food waste,
(2) support FROs’ operations, and (3) ensure that all donated food is safe
and fit for human consumption. Under existing law and the bill, an FRO
is a public or private entity, including community-based organizations,
food banks, food pantries, and soup kitchens that give free nutritional
assistance to needy people in Connecticut on a nonprofit basis and in
their ordinary course of business or operations.
The bill also requires the donation policies to include the following:
1. education for management and employees on the food
distribution process and its relationship to food insecurity and
food waste;
2. a commitment to making reasonable efforts to identify and
partner with at least two FROs to donate excess edible food 2023HB-05577-R000266-BA.DOCX
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before the food becomes source-separated organic material;
3. a framework for formalizing and streamlining food donation
protocols; and
4. a process for ensuring that the donated food has significant
nutritional value.
The bill allows supermarkets, resorts, and conference centers that are
under common ownership to adopt a common written policy that
applies to each facility under the common owner.
BACKGROUND
Related Bills
sSB 1046 (File 105), favorably reported by the Children’s Committee,
includes several provisions related to the disposal of organic material in
public schools, including a requirement for some school districts to
separate and recycle it at composting facilities (i.e., those that meet
existing law’s 26-ton and 20-mile triggers) and the establishment of a
voluntary composting station program.
sHB 6664, favorably reported by the Environment Committee, among
other things, (1) expands, beginning January 1, 2025, existing law’s
source separation and recycling requirements for certain large organic
material generators to include institutions like hospitals, public schools,
and correctional facilities, and (2) requires municipalities to separate
and collect food scraps by October 1, 2028.
COMMITTEE ACTION
Environment Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 33 Nay 0 (03/10/2023)