SENATE, No. 1040 STATE OF NEW JERSEY 221st LEGISLATURE PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION Sponsored by: Senator LINDA R. GREENSTEIN District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex) SYNOPSIS Exempts community gardens composting on-site from certain DEP permits under certain conditions. CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT As reported by the Senate Environment and Energy Committee with technical review. S1040 GREENSTEIN 2 AN ACT concerning permits for certain community gardens and 1 supplementing Title 13 of the Revised Statutes. 2 3 BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and General Assembly of the State 4 of New Jersey: 5 6 1. a. Notwithstanding any law, rule, or regulation to the 7 contrary, a community garden that operates an on-site composting 8 system shall not be required by the Department of Environmental 9 Protection to obtain a permit, approval, or other authorization 10 issued by the department pursuant to the "Solid Waste Management 11 Act," P.L.1970, c.39 (C.13:1E-1 et seq.), the "New Jersey Statewide 12 Mandatory Source Separation and Recycling Act," P.L.1987, c.102 13 (C.13:1E-99.11 et al.), the "Air Pollution Control Act (1954)," 14 P.L.1954, c.212 (C.26:2C-1 et seq.), or the "Water Pollution 15 Control Act," P.L.1977, c.74 (C.58:10A-1 et seq.), or any rules or 16 regulations adopted pursuant thereto, for the operation of the on-site 17 composting system provided that: 18 (1) the property on which the composting system is located is 19 exclusively used as a community garden; 20 (2) the composting system only uses vegetative waste generated 21 by the community garden; and 22 (3) all compost generated from the composting system is used 23 on-site exclusively for the community garden. 24 b. As used in this section, “community garden” means any 25 publicly or privately owned piece of land maintained and cultivated 26 as a garden by members of the surrounding community. 27 28 2. This act shall take effect immediately. 29