To mark Earth Week, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection recently released a report documenting New Jersey’s progress toward reducing food waste in the municipal solid waste stream.
The Food Waste Reduction Act of 2017 set a goal of reducing food waste generation by 50% by the year 2030. According to the most current data available in the DEP's 50x30 progress report released Thursday, food waste declined 14% between 2017 and 2022. During the same period, overall solid waste generation in New Jersey dropped by only 0.6%.
The data on the percentage of food waste in the solid waste stream came from an audit conducted in 2022 by Rutgers University as part of a DEP grant. Reducing food waste from 1.5 million tons in 2017 to 1.3 million tons in 2022 was achieved through a combination of waste prevention, food donation, and composting, the report said.
“The considerable reduction in food waste is a strong indication of the work all of us – whether at home, at work, or in our schools and other institutions – are doing to ensure that food is not wasted and gets to people who really need it,” said acting DEP Commissioner Ed Potosnak.
“We urge everyone to keep up the good work and be even more mindful of donating food and working with organizations in their communities to prevent food waste.”
Steps New Jersey has taken to reduce food waste and enhance food security include:
- Creating a website and online toolkit containing information and resources about food waste reduction
- Implementing an interactive Food Waste Reduction Map to help connect donors and potential recipients with excess food supplies
- Utilizing state and federal grant funding to support food waste planning at the local level
- Issuing grants to 14 institutions of higher education
- Developing guidelines for reducing, recovering, and recycling food waste at schools
- Collaborating on waste reduction initiatives with the New Jersey Office of Food Security Advocate
- Funding the Meal Recovery Coalition, a statewide initiative led by nonprofit Share My Meals Inc. to reduce food waste and address hunger by normalizing the practice of recovering and redistributing surplus prepared meals.
- New Jersey Agriculture Secretary Ed Wengryn said the agricultural industry is uniquely positioned to help New Jersey continue reaching goals in reducing food waste.
“Initiatives such as gleaning, whether from farm crops or supermarket surplus, supply food banks with fresh fruits and vegetables, ensuring that nutritious foods reach communities in need,” Wengryn said. “Improved nutrition standards in school meals, options in meal selection and right sizing meal choices are ways we reduce food waste on the front end, along with higher quality meals and ingredients.”
Feeding hungry residents instead of sending surplus food to landfills makes better use of resources, said Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin.
“With the goal of ending hunger by 2030 at the forefront of our efforts, the Legislature has had more than 40 bills on food insecurity signed into law, because nobody should be going hungry when we have the support to make a real difference,” Coughlin said.
Keeping food out of landfills is important for environmental reasons as well as addressing food insecurity in communities. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, food is the single largest category of material placed in municipal landfills, where it emits methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
