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: