Connecticut 2023 2023 Regular Session

Connecticut House Bill HB05577 Comm Sub / Analysis

Filed 03/28/2023

                     
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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)