When you're home cooking a meal, what do you do with the leftover stems from leafy greens, or the rind after squeezing a lemon to add flavor to a dish? What about items on your dinner plate that you didn't eat because you're full or they're just not appetizing?
Do you throw the scraps in the garbage?
Many of us do, but it's not a good idea, because the result is harmful to the environment. A new report says Massachusetts must do a better job of keeping food waste out of landfills and incinerators, because the result is greenhouse gases that contribute significantly to climate change.
“Food waste is a big problem,” said the report’s authors, which include MASSPIRG, Clean Water Action and Frontier Group.
One of the biggest problems is methane gas from food scraps dumped in landfills. It's a powerful greenhouse gas and municipal landfills are the third-largest source of methane emissions from human activities in the U.S., according to the EPA. In addition, food waste accounts for nearly 25% of solid waste from cities and towns that ends up in landfills.
For additional perspective from the EPA, food thrown in the trash causes 58% of methane emissions from municipal solid-waste landfills. The EPA says greenhouse gas emissions from wasted food in the U.S. is equivalent to the same category of emissions from more than 50 million cars that run on gasoline.
Worcester, the second-most populous city in New England, has no recorded results in the report for food waste collected, based on surveys done by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The reason for the lack of numbers is that Worcester doesn’t have a citywide food-waste collection program. It’s likely that many residents and businesses put food scraps in the garbage that end up at the WIN Waste Innovations incinerator in Millbury, said Miranda Hotham, Worcester's zero waste coordinator.
Not all of Worcester's food scraps end up in the trash, said Hotham, because some homes and businesses hire private companies that pick up the scraps and cart them away for composting.
'Priority' for Worcester
Reducing food waste is a “priority” in Worcester, said Hotham. The city expects to have a zero-waste master plan finished in about a year and Hotham said programs to cut food waste will be in the plan.
Hotham is studying options to see what works best for Worcester and believes drop off sites, like those in place for yard waste, could be a way to go in the short term. Long term, she envisions a possible curbside food-waste pickup program.
Working with the public schools to reduce food waste is another focus for Worcester, said Hotham.
More numbers: Goal unmet
Discarded foods account for roughly 20% of trash in Massachusetts, with 930,000 tons of food waste sent to landfills and incinerators yearly, said the report.
Massachusetts has goals to cut food waste but missed the mark, according to the report.
The state fell 20% short of its goal to cut 450,000 tons of food waste from disposal by 2020. Massachusetts has another goal: cutting 780,000 tons of food waste disposal by 2030. To get there, the report said certain steps must be taken.
One is to follow the lead of Vermont and California, which ban the disposal of food waste in landfills. Also, divert all food scraps from disposal, invest in systems to make that possible and set programs to prevent food waste.
Many foods shouldn't be thrown out, because they remain nutritious and healthy and can feed the hungry.
Composting is key
Another recommendation is to focus more on composting and less on anaerobic digestion. Composting uses oxygen to break down organic matter to make fertilizer, while anaerobic digestion doesn’t.
State financial incentives largely drove a fourfold increase in the amount of food waste sent to anaerobic digesters from 2016 to 2022, said the report.
However, there’s a public health downside to anaerobic digestion, according to the study. Food waste sent to sewage treatment plants for anaerobic digestion results in biosolids sold as fertilizer that may be contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS. The chemicals are linked to a range of health risks including cancer.
To reduce the risks, the report said, Massachusetts should cut the amount of food waste that goes to sewage treatment plants, take steps to ensure the purity of food waste sent to composting operations and adopt standards for PFAS and other contaminants in biosolids.
Hotham noted she is studying other cities that use anaerobic digestion and some of their methods could be adopted in Worcester. While noting she isn't well-versed on the chemical process of anaerobic digestion, Hotham said composting could be a better option for Worcester.
Send money to cities/towns
Massachusetts also needs to invest more resources in cities and towns so they can create programs to collect food scraps and increase public participation in existing programs, said the report. In addition, it’s important to tackle the top of the waste stream, the report said. That means instead of throwing out healthy foods, develop channels to get them to families in need.
Another consideration is cost. It’s less expensive to send food scraps to composting and anaerobic digesting facilities instead of landfills, the study said.
That’s because Massachusetts cities and towns pay more, on average, than any state in the U.S. to deposit trash in landfills. Known as tipping fees, Massachusetts pays $122.63 per ton, according to Waste Business Journal . Rounding out the top five most expensive tipping-fee states are Minnesota ($119.69), Vermont ($116.46), Rhode Island ($100.20) and Washington ($100.08). Worcester paid $77.78 per ton as of Jan. 1.
There is another financial consideration. Reducing food waste saves money when considering the cost of growing, processing and transporting foods from the farm to the dinner table. The average family of four in the U.S. throws out $1,500 of food yearly, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Commitment to 2030 goal
The state Department of Environmental Protection is reviewing the report’s recommendations, said an agency spokeswoman. “The Healey-Driscoll administration is committed to accelerating our efforts to support and expand these initiatives,” said the agency’s prepared statement, adding it’s committed to achieving the 2030 goal of cutting 780,000 tons of food waste.
Over a six-year period from 2016 to 2022, the state cut the amount of food waste sent to landfills and incinerators by 47%, from 360,000 tons to 190,000 tons yearly, according to the report.
Massachusetts is also processing roughly 600,000 tons of organic waste yearly through anaerobic digestion. Meanwhile, 89 of the state’s 351 cities and towns had some type of food waste collection system in 2023, representing more than half a million homes. That compares to 24 communities in 2014.
Other accomplishments, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection, include a 56% jump in the number of businesses statewide that have food-waste diversion programs. Today, the number is 3,100, compared to 1,350 in 2014.
Also, enforcement of the state’s ban on commercial food waste resulted in 129 infraction notices and 14 court orders since 2022.
The ban, established in October 2014, prohibited businesses that generate a minimum of one ton weekly of food waste from throwing the scraps in the garbage. Instead, businesses must arrange alternatives including donation, composting and anaerobic digestion.
The state toughened the ban in November 2022, setting the minimum weekly threshold at a half ton or more of food waste.
Contact Henry Schwan at henry.schwan@telegram.com . Follow him on X: @henrytelegram .
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Report: Mass. must do more to keep food waste out of landfills
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