Food waste

Food Waste Composting Regulations White Paper
California Integrated Waste Management Board
October 2009

California Integrated Waste Management Board staff was directed by Board Members to review Board regulations to ensure they are grounded in the best available science, address changing market conditions, and take advantage of developing technologies. Board staff developed priorityregulatory areas for review as part of the Strategic Directives adopted in February 2007 and to support the Organics Roadmap. One of the priority regulation areas Board staff selected to review is food waste composting regulations.

Compostable organic materials comprise approximately 25 percent, or about 10 million tons, of what is disposed in landfills annually.[1] According to the 2008 WasteCharacterization Study, food waste represents 15.5 percent (approximately 6.1 million tons) of the material landfilled in California. Strategic Directive 6.1 calls for a 50 percent reduction in the amount of organics in the waste stream by 2020. An additional 15 million tons of organic material will need to be recycled annually to achieve this goal, requiring the siting of new and expansion of existingorganic diversion facilities.

Many jurisdictions are interested in diverting food waste to comply with the 50 percent waste reduction mandate in the California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, but are having difficulty finding local facilities that are permitted to compost food waste. Currently, food waste composting requires a full Compostable Materials Handling Facility Permit (unlessexcluded under Section 17855 of the regulations), and many stakeholders indicate this requirement discourages food waste composting. Other stakeholders indicate food waste is a highly putrescible and odorous, attracts vectors, generates volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and should require a full Compostable Materials Handling Facility Permit. Below are several issues identified by stakeholdersduring recent informal interviews:
• Requiring a full Compostable Materials Handling Facility Permit to compost food material may be too stringent.
• The current definition of food material is very general.
• Food material contains a large amount of contaminants that are not found in green material which impacts facility operations and product quality.
• The potential negativeenvironmental impacts of composting food material have not been fully researched.
• Current regulations may not comprehensively address compost safety issues.

This paper will examine the regulatory history of composting in California, compost/mulch infrastructure, compost product safety, compost quality, food waste composting in California, air and water quality impacts of composting, andfood waste composting regulatory issues identified by stakeholders.

Regulatory History of Composting in California

Composting facilities did not require permits from the Board until the passage of Assembly Bill 3992 (Sher, Chapter 1355, Statutes of 1990). Board Members adopted Green Waste Compost Regulations on July 15, 1993, but the new regulations did not address other material types, such asanimal waste, sewage sludge, and mixed solid waste. Each of these material types posed varying degrees of public health and safety and environmental concerns and different operational aspects which required some variation in regulations. During the process of developing minimum standards for composting facilities and examining the need to regulate new solid waste handling activities, BoardMembers determined that permitting procedures should be adjusted to more efficiently regulate these new activities.

• In November 1994, Board Members adopted regulations to implement a tiered regulatory structure to provide a flexible regulatory structure for solid waste facilities and solid waste handling operations. The tiered structure was designed to provide a level of regulatory oversight...