ASSEMBLY STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
ASSEMBLY, No. 1439
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: FEBRUARY 16, 2023
The Assembly State and Local Government Committee reports
favorably and with committee amendments Assembly Bill No. 1439.
As amended, this bill would require each solid waste management
district in the State (i.e., each county and the Hackensack
Meadowlands District) to develop, as part of its district solid waste
management plan, a strategy to reduce food waste in the district.
Specifically, this bill would require each solid waste management
district to develop and implement a strategy for reducing, by the year
2030, the amount of food waste generated annually in the district by at
least 50 percent of the amount which is generated in the year this bill is
enacted into law. The strategy would be adopted as an amendment to
each district’s solid waste management plan and subject to the
approval of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
The bill would require the DEP to develop, and publish on its
Internet website, a list of measures solid waste management districts
can take in order to achieve the food waste reduction requirement
established in the bill. These measures would include actions to
prevent food waste and increase the donation of surplus edible food,
the source separation and recycling of food waste, the composting and
anaerobic digestion of food waste and other food waste diversion
methods that also reduce methane emissions, and public awareness
campaigns.
COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS
The committee amendments to the bill expand the list of food
reduction measures to be developed by the DEP to also include other
food waste diversion methods that also reduce methane emissions.