NYS law expands food composting, donation requirements for large producers

A bill signed into New York State law in December will expand the number of restaurants, grocery stores, colleges and sports venues that will have to donate surplus food or truck it to a facility to be composted or converted into natural gas, though advocates said Long Island lacks facilities to meet demand.

The original version of the law, which went into effect in 2022, requires producers of 2 tons or more of food waste a week to ship inedible scraps to a composter or digester if they're within 25 miles of such a facility. There are 60 businesses and institutions in Nassau and Suffolk counties that meet those criteria and must comply, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which oversees the program. 

The new law, which takes effect in 2026, lowers the threshold of food waste to 1 ton a week and expands the geographic boundaries to 50 miles. It's unclear how many businesses would be affected under the expanded law.

Stop & Shop stores — of which nine on Long Island must recycle food scraps — have bins "dedicated to inedible food waste," according to company spokesman Daniel Wolk, which "are picked up by our third-party food waste recyclers." The company also donates food via Long Island Cares, Island Harvest and Food Bank For NYC. 

But the lone compost facility on Long Island that accepts large quantities of organic material — Grounds For A Peel, in Centereach — says some businesses that are supposed to be recycling aren't doing so. Glenda Alvarado-Ostrow, the owner, said companies that fall within the law's mandate have inquired about her composting service. But when they learn her facility charges a fee they don't pursue it. "It’s a great law but it’s not enforced," Alvarado-Ostrow said.

Lori Severino, a spokeswoman for the DEC, said the agency performs spot inspections across the state. "If a business is not in compliance, DEC educates them on their responsibilities under the law" and offers assistance in managing their excess food. "The DEC will pursue enforcement if necessary," Severino said in a statement, and can impose fines if violations are not corrected.

Proponents have said the food waste law lowers the greenhouse gas emissions and helps prevent hunger by diverting edible food from landfills. 

Roughly 1 in 4 adults reported they have experienced food insecurity, according to a 2023 study by the state Department of Health. In Suffolk County, 23% of adults said they "always, usually, or sometimes" worried about having enough money for nutritious meals in the previous year; in Nassau the figure was 21%.

Yet New York sends nearly 4 million tons of unwanted food to landfills every year, according to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. And those 4 million tons of decaying organic matter produce methane, a greenhouse gas 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"Achieving significant reductions [of methane] would have a rapid and significant effect" on reducing heat-trapping emissions, a 2023 report from the EPA notes.

Most major producers exempted

But on Long Island, infrastructure lags behind the law's aspirations. "There will be more and more food waste generators who are covered by the law," said Will Flower, vice president of corporate and public affairs for the waste management firm Winters Bros. "But there are still an insufficient number of facilities to accept it — to process this material." 

Many major producers of surplus food in Nassau and Suffolk are therefore required to donate edible food but not to recycle food scraps. Out of 243 business that are required to donate, 183 are exempted from the recycling mandate because there's no facility within 25 miles. The remaining 60 must send their waste either to be composted or to be processed in an anaerobic digester, a large tank that captures methane as the food rots and converts it into a gas that can used for heating.

An anaerobic digester is under construction in Yaphank by American Organic Energy, which company president Charles Vigliotti said should be operational in about a year, after some delays. The gas produced there will be piped into the National Grid network. 

Biogas is hardly the perfect solution to the food waste problem, environmentalists point out. When burned, it releases carbon dioxide, just like fracked gas, said Patrick McClellan, the state policy director for the New York League of Conservation Voters. Still, he said, total emissions for biogas are lower, in part because it's not getting trucked or piped long distances, with leakage along the way. 

Supporters of the food waste law note that food donations have increased significantly since it went into effect in January 2022. Food banks and organizations such as shelters and soup kitchens have collected close to 37 million pounds of edible food in the past three years, according to Jay Hawkins, director of food recovery programs at Feeding New York State. 

Pickups are arranged at no cost to the company — reducing their trash hauling expenses, Hawkins said.

Hawkins expects the expanded law will bring still more donations. "It will be great to see that," he said. "We’ll be able to feed more folks."