OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
sSB-1046
AN ACT CONCERNING THE REDUCTION OF FOOD WASTE IN
SCHOOLS.
Primary Analyst: DD 3/15/23
Contributing Analyst(s): SB, MR
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact:
Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 24 $ FY 25 $
Department of Energy and
Environmental Protection
GF - Potential
Cost
See Below See Below
Note: GF=General Fund
Municipal Impact:
Municipalities Effect FY 24 $ FY 25 $
Local and Regional School
Districts
STATE
MANDATE
1
- Cost
Potential Potential
Explanation
The bill results in potential costs for certain school districts by
establishing several requirements for the disposal of organic material
(primarily food waste) in public schools, and by establishing a related
voluntary pilot program.
The bill requires districts that (1) generate at least 26 tons of organic
materials annually and (2) are located within 20 miles of a composting
facility to separate organic materials from other solid waste and ensure
that those materials are recycled at an authorized composting facility
1
State mandate is defined in Sec. 2-32b(2) of the Connecticut General Statutes, "state
mandate" means any state initiated constitutional, statutory or executive action that
requires a local government to establish, expand or modify its activities in such a way
as to necessitate additional expenditures from local revenues. 2023SB-01046-R000105-FN.DOCX Page 2 of 3
beginning in FY 24.
2
It also allows districts that do not meet these
thresholds to participate in a voluntary pilot program to recycle organic
material in the same manner.
Districts subject to the bill's requirements, or districts that choose to
participate in the voluntary pilot program, will incur costs associated
with storing and transporting organic materials separately from
nonorganic materials and with disposing organic materials at
appropriate facilities. In districts that pay tipping fees to the waste
management companies they currently use, the cost incurred by the bill
may be at least partially offset by savings associated with reduced
tipping fees, as organic waste will no longer be disposed of by those
companies.
Current costs for solid waste disposal across ten school districts range
from $18,000 in a small district (enrollment of 452) to $345,000 in a
medium sized district (enrollment 9,800), among the 13 districts for
which information is available. In most instances, these costs made up
less than half of one percent of the district's annual budget. It is not
known if any of these districts would meet the bill's thresholds for the
requirement to separate organic and non-organic waste, rather than the
option to participate in the voluntary pilot program.
The bill allows local and regional school districts to share services
related to the recycling of organic materials. Any savings achieved via
such service sharing agreements would at least partially offset the costs
in the bill.
It is estimated that organic waste (i.e. food scraps) makes up 22% of
all municipal solid waste generated annually, not specific to school
districts. In FY 22, the average tip fee was $102 per ton across all waste
management facilities according to the Department of Energy and
Environmental Protection (DEEP).
2
Seven such facilities currently exist in the state, located in Berlin, Ellington, New
Milford, North Haven, Thompson, and two in Southington. 2023SB-01046-R000105-FN.DOCX Page 3 of 3
The bill requires DEEP to administer the voluntary pilot program for
organic materials composting for local and regional school districts
beginning in FY 24. Any administrative cost to DEEP will depend on the
scope of the program.
Lastly, the bill requires the State Department of Education (SDE) to
develop guidelines in FY 24 concerning the implementation of a
composting station program in schools. This has no fiscal impact, as it is
anticipated that SDE can develop these guidelines with existing
resources.
The Out Years
The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would
continue into the future subject to inflation and the volume of organic
materials sent by schools to composting facilities instead of waste
management companies