State Food Waste Bans Aren’t Working. Except in Massachusetts
A study that looks at commercial food waste bans in a handful of US states found that the vast majority of them delivered no meaningful results.
A handful of US states have banned grocery stores, restaurants and other commercial waste operators from trashing uneaten food in landfills.
Photographer: Mike Kai Chen/BloombergIn a bid to curb food waste, a handful of US states have banned grocery stores, restaurants and other commercial waste operators from trashing uneaten food in landfills. But a new study in Science finds that most of those bans have been ineffective — except one.
In Massachusetts, a ban started in 2014 led to a 7% average annual reduction in total landfilled and incinerated waste in its first five years of implementation, according to the study. By contrast, bans in California (started in 2016), Connecticut (2014), Rhode Island (2016) and Vermont (2014) did not meaningfully reduce landfill waste. Programs in New Jersey (2021), New York (2022), Maryland (2023) and Washington (2024) proved too new to evaluate.