New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos announced $2 million in new grant funding is now available to municipalities statewide to help establish or expand food scrap recycling programs and facilities.
The first $1 million in grants will prioritize eligible projects that dedicate at least half of the funding to serving environmental justice communities to ensure these communities disproportionately overburdened by environmental pollution are able to participate in the initiative’s climate and waste-reduction benefits.
“Food scrap recycling infrastructure is critical to achieve New York’s waste diversion goals and these grants help ensure equitable access to this new funding opportunity,” said Seggos. “Composting can help protect our shared environment by diverting food waste to help reduce our dependence on landfills, protect the planet from harmful methane emissions, and recycle organic nutrients back into the soil to grow healthy food. In addition, successful programs like the Food Donation and Food Waste Scraps Recycling Law support the State’s efforts under Governor Kathy Hochul’s leadership to reduce waste and climate-altering emissions while getting hundreds of thousands of pounds of quality food to New Yorkers in need.”
Commissioner Seggos celebrated the announcement at an event at the Radix Ecological Sustainability Center in the city of Albany with Mayor Kathy Sheehan, recognizing the city’s food scraps drop-off location and compost education program. The city received a $225,000 Food Waste Reduction grant from DEC in 2019 and is putting it to work in the community.
The food scraps and compost initiatives targeted for funding in this round of DEC grants are among many efforts New York State is undertaking to promote both increased food donation and food scraps recycling. Earlier this year, the state implemented the New York State Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Law, which requires businesses and institutions that generate an annual average of two tons of wasted food per week or more to donate excess edible food and recycle all remaining food scraps if they are within 25 miles of an organics recycler. Approximately 1,150 businesses across the state are required to donate, with 320 businesses also required to recycle their food scraps. DEC partnered with Feeding New York State, the food bank association of New York State, to provide assistance to businesses to help set up or enhance food donation programs. In the last six months since this successful partnership got underway, more than 440,000 pounds of edible food was donated to food banks and provided directly to people in need.
Feeding New York State executive director Dan Egan said, “The Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Law is already having a big impact on families in need. We have seen a substantial increase in donations from 43 new donors, with more slated to come online shortly. Our partnership with Commissioner Seggos’ staff at DEC is what makes this possible. DEC funding and expertise has enabled us to visit dozens of potential new donors, manage new, high quality food donations, and divert over 400,000 pounds of perfectly good food away from landfills.”
For more information, visit https://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/97456.html
Published in the June 2022 Edition