**Updated at 3 p.m. to include additional news stories**

But in a rare public dispute, Senate Democrats disagree over aspects of the bill

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight

By a narrow vote, the Senate yesterday gave final legislative approval to a bill that would require large generators of food waste, such as hospitals, prisons, restaurants and supermarkets, to recycle their trash instead of sending it to landfills, or, in most cases, incinerators.

The bill (A-2371) was approved the same day as the Senate also passing, by 22-14, a much-debated measure (S-864) to prohibit single-use plastic bags and paper carry-out bags — like the food waste bill, long a top priority of environmental organizations in New Jersey. The plastics bill still needs to be approved by the Assembly, where its prospects are a bit murky.

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Each of the issues has defied reaching a consensus among lawmakers. Both measures died in the lame-duck legislative session earlier this year despite gaining some traction in either the Assembly or Senate, only to falter because neither house could agree with the other’s version.

Nevertheless, the movement on both bills marked a victory for proponents given the opposition the proposals faced in previous sessions, not only from industry lobbyists but from lawmakers themselves.

That surfaced yesterday in the Senate in a rare public dispute among fellow Democrats over the food waste bill with Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen) proposing to amend the measure, arguing the legislation is not “practical.’’

Sarlo: It would increase costs

Sarlo contended the bill will increase costs to institutions and public entities by requiring them to send their trash, potentially over large distances, to be recycled in so-called food digesters, instead of landfills. Many landfills have built methane collection systems to capture gas from food waste in garbage dumps and convert it into electricity.

“This bill will destroy those systems,’’ Sarlo said in offering amendments to the bill to conform to what was agreed to in the prior legislative session. That bill, however, was conditionally vetoed by Gov. Phil Murphy, who faulted the idea of sending waste to garbage incinerators.

Under the current bill, facilities would be prohibited from sending food waste to a licensed incinerator or landfill only if they could demonstrate economic hardship.

Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), the sponsor of the bill, said that only 15% of food waste would end up in landfills, the third-largest source of methane emissions in the world. “We have to do everything we can to turn around climate change,’’ said Smith, adding methane is more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas emission causing climate change.

Concerns about location

Other Democratic senators, however, expressed concerns that these food digesters would be built in urban areas already overburdened with pollution facilities, otherwise known as environmental justice communities.

Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) sought to blunt those concerns by vowing to back a bill (S-232) now pending in the Senate that gives environmental justice communities more ability to fight unwanted projects that increase pollution in those communities. Ultimately, the bill only won approval by a 22-17 vote.

Food waste recycling bill heads to Murphy’s desk, again

By Daniel J. Munoz, NJBIZ

Lawmakers on Thursday sent a bill to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk that would ramp up recycling requirements for unused and wasted food.

The proposal, Assembly Bill 2371, took an unusual route through the state Legislature when it bypassed any committee hearings on the Senate side, drawing the ire of lawmakers at an afternoon voting session on March 5, who unsuccessfully attempted to stall the controversial measure.

Many critics pushed Thursday for an exemption to be reinserted into the bill that would allow the disposal of food in landfills or trash incinerators to count as recycling, such as Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-36th District, whose district in Bergen County includes landfills.

Murphy vetoed the measure over the summer because he worried those exemptions “severely weakened” it.

“We find ourselves here today, not on the original bill, not the agreed-upon bill, not the handshake bill, not the bill that was comprised,” but a bill that “bypassed the environment committee, bypassed the budget committee, right to the floor,” Sarlo said.

The proposal would require large generators of food waste, such as hospitals, prisons, restaurants, and supermarkets, to recycle food garbage rather than send it to incinerators or landfills.

Many lawmakers, especially those representing urban districts where the foul odors and noxious fumes of incinerators and landfills find their way into local resident’s lungs, reluctantly approved the measure.

“My apprehension toward this bill is not the good environmental impact it will have … my apprehension … is that in areas like Newark, that have key geographic locations with the port and every interstate in the state of New Jersey, makes it such a viable and attractive place to become a hub for one of these facilities,” Sen. Teresa Ruiz, D-29th District said Thursday.

“We already have an incinerator and we already have the port. We already have enough truck traffic that is creating asthma numbers in pluralities like we’ve never seen before,” the Newark senator added. “Communities that are already negatively impacted within environmental issues are removed from this capacity so that when these sites are getting built, we’re not double-dipping in areas that just get clobbered on time and time again.”

At its core, the bill requires generators of more than 52 tons of food per year to separate food waste and send it to the closest authorized recycling facility within 25 miles.

Sen. Bob Smith, D-17th District, the bill’s main sponsor, argued that the legislation would create an entirely new industry, revolved around environmentally conscious food recycling, rather than letting it sit in a landfill where it would produce methane gas. In the years to follow, the booming industry would drive down costs and vastly outdo any expenses that businesses might incur in the near future, Smith argued.

FOOD WASTE BILL MOVES

By Samantha Maldonado, Politico

The state Senate on Thursday passed and sent to Gov. Phil Murphy legislation that would require facilities such as supermarkets, restaurants and hospitals to separate and recycle their food waste. The bill also changes the definition of Class I renewable energy to include renewable natural gas, or biogas. The Senate passed the measure, 22-17, after considerable discussion. The Assembly passed it last month. “If we want to get some of our food waste out of landfills, this is the way to do it,” said Sen. Bob Smith, who sponsored the bill.

New Jersey Senate Passes Long-awaited Food Waste Bill

By Waste360 Staff

After six years of back-and-forth discussions, the New Jersey Senate on March 5 gave final legislative approval requiring large generators of food waste to recycle the material instead of sending it to landfill.

The bill, which ultimately passed as A2371, requires large food waste generators—hospitals, prisons, restaurants, grocery stores, etc.—to separate and recycle food waste. It also amends the definition of “Class I renewable energy.”

Specifically, under the bill, every large food waste generator that is located within 25 miles of an authorized food waste recycling facility and that generates an average projected volume of 52 or more tons per year of food waste within that radius would be required to source separate its food waste from other solid waste. They would then need to send that source-separated food waste to an authorized food waste recycling facility that has available capacity and will accept it. This only applies to an individual establishment or location that generates an average projected volume of 52 or more tons per year of food waste, so individual schools would not apply.

Finally, recycling facilities would be required to employ minority and women applicants that reside near the facility.

The legislation was sponsored by Senate Environment and Energy Chair Senator Bob Smith and Sen. Christopher Bateman.

“Food waste in this country and in New Jersey is a major problem and a serious waste of resources. The purpose of this legislation is to encourage the construction of more food waste-to-energy facilities, which can use food waste to generate electricity,” said Smith (D-Middlesex/Somerset) in a statement. “This process will ensure a constant source of separated food waste at our sanitation facilities across the state.”

The bill was released from the Senate by a vote of 22 to 17 and is on its way to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk.

The New Jersey Composting Council touted the bill’s passage as a “legislative win,” explaining that the bill will do the following:

• Create a Food Waste Recycling Market Development Council to provide recommendations on how to increase demand for products and energy generated by food waste recycling facilities.
• Require state departments or agencies that engage in landscaping or construction to use compost, mulch or other soil amendments generated from recycling of organic materials where competitively priced and feasible.
• Provide a financial incentive for energy generated at a food waste recycling facility by giving the facility a “class I renewable energy certificate,” which in turn can be sold on an open market or to energy suppliers and can be used by energy suppliers to meet renewable energy portfolio requirements.