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MassDEP floats two‑stage expansion to food‑waste disposal ban, including possible 0 threshold for businesses
Summary
MassDEP presented an informal proposal to lower the commercial food‑waste ban threshold to 0 (targeting food businesses) by 2028 and consider a later municipal program to capture residential food scraps, subject to stakeholder engagement and formal regulatory rulemaking.
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection staff presented an informal, two‑stage approach on Nov. 18 to broaden the state's food‑waste disposal ban as part of the midterm Solid Waste Master Plan review.
"We are thinking about a potential two‑stage expansion to the food waste disposal ban," John Fisher told the Solid Waste Advisory Committee. The department described a first stage in which the commercial threshold would be lowered — in practice to a 0 threshold — for enforcement purposes as early as 2028, with a second stage two years later to expand obligations for residential food scraps through municipal compliance programs.
Fisher emphasized how a 0 threshold would be implemented in the field: instead of weighing trash to prove a half‑ton/week…
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