![]() By: Coryanne Mansell, Strategic Services Representative, Center for EcoTechnology (CET) The unavoidable surplus food at your business — be it produce scraps or uneaten catered meals — never has to go to waste. Forming a strong partnership with a food rescue agency, donation site, or organics processor can prevent the nutrient-rich and calorific substance that is food from decomposing where it shouldn’t. The amount of perfectly-good, edible food that goes to waste each year when there are millions of hungry people is a systemic and humanitarian nightmare. To immediately address the 1 in 10 children in New Jersey facing hunger, edible food should be directed to pantries and donation sites whenever possible. Starting a food donation program, however, can seem logistically daunting and costly for businesses, some strained for resources themselves. Some relieving news: resources exist to make the prevention, donation, and source separation processes easier and help your business find a partner that fits into its existing flow. If you’re worried about liability, here is a fact sheet that explains your legal protections. Contrary to popular belief, most categories of food can be donated, and there are federal tax incentives that can make the effort more financially feasible. Sending inedible wasted food to composters and anaerobic digesters also creates biofertilizer and renewable energy; a diversion decision that minimizes environmental impacts, realizes sustainability goals, and benefits local communities. By providing wasted food to facilities specialized in harnessing the value of this input, businesses have the power to expand the surplus food recovery marketplace that is needed to combat climate change and environmental degradation. In 2020, New Jersey introduced a food waste recycling law to stimulate a shift from the traditional disposal methods towards more sustainable waste management practices. The law requires businesses that generate over 52 tons of pre-consumer food waste per year to source-separate and process, or recycle, this material. Those affected by the law include food wholesalers, distributors, processors, supermarkets, restaurants, schools, and hospitals, and are subject if located within 25 miles of an authorized food waste recycling facility. Whether a program is adopted to comply with the law or on a voluntarily basis, the Center for EcoTechnology (CET) understands that wasted food solutions must be customized to each unique business. With over 40+ years of experience, CET’s Wasted Food Solutions program offers no-cost waste assistance to help businesses and institutions reduce, recover, and recycle wasted food. CET has a robust toolbox of resources for businesses interested in evaluating their waste stream or implementing a recycling program, including guidance in source separation of waste and food waste estimation. Although some of these documents reference the state of Massachusetts, they are public and may be applicable region-wide. Wakefern Food Corporation, has exemplary food donation and recycling programs in place, and was recently highlighted in a FAQ document by the New Jersey Composting Council. In a single year, Wakefern diverted nearly 20,000 tons of organic food waste from disposal, and its subsidiary ShopRite stores donated more than 5,000 tons of food to local food banks. Wakefern’s surplus unfit for human consumption is sent for recycling into pellets for animal feed, or for composting through processors such as Ag Choice. Ag Choice, located in Andover, NJ, is the longest-running food waste composter in the state. Ag Choice’s operation yields high quality, custom compost materials which it sells wholesale to landscapers and garden centers. Wakefern and Ag Choice model a mutually-beneficial partnership that powers a sustainable food lifecycle. Contact CET to learn more about how they can help meet your sustainability goals at (888) 813-8552 or e-mail [email protected].
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