A couple weeks ago, State Senator Janet Cruz from Hillsborough County introduced SB 1764 calling for businesses and institutions who are generating in excess of 1 ton of food waste per week to find an outlet to recycle their organic waste. This would affect universities, cafeterias, restaurants, cafes, caterers, and any food service business out there that sends a significant volume of organic waste to the trash each night.
Here at O-Town Compost, this bill didn’t take us by surprise. We knew something like this was coming eventually, and have been urging more businesses to get on-board to start composting before it becomes mandatory and uncomfortable to do so. This same policy has been passed in states like Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, California, and cities like Austin, TX, New York City, Seattle, etc. It’s the gateway to more aggressive restrictions on food waste, because legislators are beginning to realize that harmful greenhouse gases created by organic waste at the landfill is speeding up climate change.
This bill is great news for community composters around the state including Suncoast Compost in Tampa, Apple Rabbit Compost in Jacksonville, and Compost For Life in Miami. For us composters to meet this new onslaught of food waste, we’re going to have to hire more people and find more capacity to process the material.
We urge everyone to contact your district’s state representative, and let them know how passionate you are to see the state of Florida move towards more organic waste diversion. Here, we even prepared you a template:
Dear [insert State rep.],
On February 26, 2021 Senator Janet Cruz filed a bill that would require commercial businesses and institutions to separate and recycle the food waste that they generate up to one ton per week. This policy is a huge step in the right direction for Florida to meet their waste diversion goals. If the state had had this bill in place ten years ago, the state may have met their 75% recycling rate goal by 2020. But instead, the goal came and went.
The bill represents the way things are moving around the country to divert food waste from the landfill/incinerator, where it creates harmful greenhouse gases. Other states and cities around the country have already passed a similar bill (Massachusetts, Vermont, NYC, Austin, TX, etc). It's time that Florida join the wave of progress towards finding a solution for the solid waste that future generations will eventually have to deal with.
The bill would also give a boost to the already thriving community composting industry, and provide additional jobs in the green sector. Composters around the state, like Suncoast Compost (Tampa), O-Town Compost (Orlando), and Compost For Life (Miami) are moving the needle in providing the food waste recycling infrastructure that we need to enact such a bill. There's thousands of residents in Florida choosing to pay a community composter to recycle their household food scraps. Shouldn't the commercial sector, where most of the state's food waste is generated anyways, have to take ownership as well?
Sincerely,
[Name]
[District]
