On Thursday, the NJ Senate could vote to mandate large-scale, food-waste recycling

Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor

We reported on Saturday that time was running out on A3726, a bill that would require large-scale generators of food waste (think universities, restaurants, casinos, etc.) to send their material to state-approved recycling facilities.

Late today, the Senate announced that it will consider a motion on Thursday (Jan. 9) to accept the governor’s recommended amendments that would remove exemptions in the bill for landfills and waste incinerators. If the motion succeeds, as is expected, Governor Murphy will sign the bill into law.

That outcome would delight numerous recycling and other environmental organizations that have been fighting for years to get the bill enacted.

But don’t expect quick results. Currently, there are no recycling facilities in the state that fit the role anticipated by the legislation. Proposals to build such facilities can now be expected to surface since the new law would essentially guarantee a flow of food waste to them. Without a predictable and dependable supply, investors have not been willing to commit funding to build and operate full-scale, food-waste recycling plants.

Where will we likely see food waste plants? Those familiar with such projects expect the first proposals will come from areas of the state with the highest populations. More people=more food waste=greatest potential return on recycling facility investments.

Two potential hurdles both involve the NJDEP
The agency’s ever-constricted budget doesn’t have much room to hire new employees to review recycling plant proposals. And, even if a proposal gets a DEP green light, the agency will still need to add staffers to oversee compliance. Why? See Boston Globe link below.

From the Boston Globe, February 26, 2019
Five years ago, Massachusetts launched the nation’s most ambitious effort to curb commercial food waste by banning universities, hospitals, and large businesses from sending discarded food to landfills.

But critics like John Hanselman, who built a business based on the ban, say that state regulators have failed to enforce the restrictions, leading to a widespread lack of compliance.

Hanselman’s company invested $70 million to build five high-tech plants to convert food waste — a significant source of carbon emissions — into electricity, heat, and fertilizer. But now his company is scrounging to find a sufficient amount of waste for the plants. Click for more.

Big waste generators already seeking to be exempted

As the legislation moved through the Senate and Assembly, many insiders believed it would never reach the governor’s desk. Few of the ‘large generators’ who would be covered by the bill publically objected to it. But within days of the legislation’s late-session show of momentum, hospitals won the introduction of S4343 that would grant them a two-year exemption.

If the Senate passes and the Governor signs A3726, how many more exemption bills will be introduced in the next session? Stay tuned.

2019 ends with recyclers rejoicing

Despite the hurdles that the expected new food waste law might face, it still is a major victory for the state’s recycling industry that also is celebrating the expected final passage of:

S1683 Cracks down on phony ‘soil recyclers’ including organized-crime types who pedaled contaminated soils to construction projects

A4382/SS2815 Authorizes participation in a nationwide, used-paint, take-back program that will shift the cost of paint recycling from county budgets to a national program underwritten by paint manufacturers.

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