2023 Wins in Food Waste & What’s Next in 2024

As the year comes to a close and we look forward to another, NRDC’s food waste team reflected on all we’ve accomplished this year and what we’re most excited for in 2024. With every year that passes, food waste draws increasing attention, investment, and commitment. This blog recaps some of the highlights of our year’s work, along with other key developments in food waste reduction. 

Regional and Municipal:  

At the local level, NRDC continues to support governments and organizations through our Food Matters initiative. At the beginning of 2023, Food Matters expanded its reach by including additional cities and counties as technical support partners. Collaborative efforts to implement various food waste solutions are underway in 21 U.S. cities and counties. Our thriving knowledge sharing network hosts monthly calls covering a range of topics, from how to apply for federal grant opportunities to holiday food waste campaigns.  

We are continually pleased to see federal and state funding flowing into cities through initiatives such as the EPA Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling and Recycling Education and Outreach grants, the USDA Food Waste and Composting Cooperative Agreements, and other federal funding opportunities. For example, the City of Baltimore, a longtime Food Matters partner, received $4 million to develop a solar-powered composting facility that is projected to annually divert 12,000 tons of food scraps and other organic materials from landfills and incinerators.  

We continue to update and expand our tools and resources focused on helping local governments reduce food waste, including adding to our suite of model municipal policies, produced in partnership with the Environmental Law Institute. In the past year, we produced a Model Executive Order on Municipal Leadership on Food Waste Reduction, designed to give local governments options to “lead by example” by instituting policies and programs to raise awareness about and reduce food waste, as well as a Model Ordinance Establishing a Pay-As-You-Throw Program for Residential Municipal Solid Waste, intended to support local governments looking to reduce waste generation and ensure more municipal discards are recycled or composted.  

For a more detailed overview of the impactful strides made through Food Matters in the past year, check out this blog. Looking ahead, our primary focus remains on deepening collaboration in cities to develop transformational policies and programs, while continuing to foster peer learning and sharing best practices. 

State: 

In April, NRDC, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC), and ReFED partnered to launch the Zero Food Waste Coalition (ZFWC), a national collaboration that brings together non-profits, businesses, and government to advocate for ambitious food waste policy solutions that are needed to reach our national goal of halving food waste by 2030, reduce methane emissions from landfills, improve food access and nutrition security, and build more sustainable food systems. Since the launch, we’ve grown our membership to more than 100 members across over 30 states.  

Upon launching the coalition, we established a state working group of members across the country who are motivated to drive local solutions in their states. The group is eager to share resources and opportunities for engagement. One such opportunity for engagement is the Inflation Reduction Act-funded Climate Pollution Reduction Grants. Nearly every state and numerous metropolitan areas, territories, and tribes are undergoing planning processes to inventory their area’s greenhouse gas emissions and develop a priority climate action plan. Both ZFWC and NRDC have circulated resources to help states, metropolitan areas, territories and tribes ensure food waste is represented in these plans and the subsequent grant applications that are funded by EPA in 2024. 

In May, the coalition published Achieving Zero Food Waste: A State Policy Toolkit, outlining 15 policy opportunities for states to reduce food waste including building organic waste bans, expanding tax incentives, permitting and zoning food scrap recycling facilities, procuring compost, and implementing grant programs. The report details the important elements and considerations which make a policy successful, connections to federal policy, lessons learned from other states that have implemented the policy, and draft model legislative templates which can be modified to facilitate adoption. The ZFWC has presented widely about the toolkit and hopes to see its best practices integrated into numerous bills introduced in 2024. 

Along with Californians Against Waste, NRDC co-sponsored AB 660 (Irwin) in the California legislature. The bill aims to standardize and clarify date labels on food. 20% of the food wasted in our homes is attributed to uncertainty about the meaning of food label dates, erroneously called “expiration dates.” Most of these date labels are intended to relay peak quality but Americans are prematurely tossing food because they think it may have become unsafe. A report from MITRE and Gallup further stressed the importance of addressing food date labels, finding that households which toss food because of the date label are wasting double the amount of food compared to households that do not toss past-date food. Representative Irwin also introduced AJR10, a resolution urging Congress and the President to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023, a priority that NRDC is also invested in seeing advance. While we are excited to see states like California trying to make progress on reducing food waste due to food date labeling, it is important that date labels be standardized at the federal level to reduce the confusing differences across state lines.  

Federal:  

Every year, federal action on food waste grows. In ZFWC’s first year, we have focused on influencing policy in the Farm Bill, unlocking federal funds to support state and local efforts, and disseminating policy tools to states. Here is some of the exciting activity happening at the federal level: 

• Bills are moving: In this legislative session, many food waste-related bills were introduced or re-introduced, including the Food Date Labeling Act, NO TIME TO Waste Act, COMPOST Act, and the Zero Food Waste Act, in addition to the passage of the Food Donation Improvement Act in January. NRDC released a series of short informational “Food Is Made to be Eaten” videos featuring chef Tom Colicchio to spread awareness about the expanded liability protections for food donors secured under the Food Donation Improvement Act (FDIA). The Food Date Labeling Act, ZFWC’s main advocacy focus within the Farm Bill, would standardize date labels on food packaging and reduce confusion about their meanings.  
• Federal funding is flowing: The Biden Administration has awarded millions of dollars to support food waste reduction projects and activities throughout the country and internationally. In addition to the Food Waste and Composting Cooperative Agreements and CPRG, in September, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued $100 million in a grant program through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support solid waste infrastructure for recycling in states, territories, and communities, including $44 million to support 33 projects to prevent and recycle wasted food. Also in September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced an additional $25 million investment to expand efforts to reduce food loss and waste through the Community Food Projects (CFP) Competitive Grants Program, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced $10 million in funding to support food loss and waste efforts internationally. Millions of dollars have also been awarded by USDA to support compost production through the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program. This funding is critical for achieving our national goal of reducing food loss and waste by 50% by 2030. 
• Pressure for federal action on methane: As outlined in EPA’s new reports on food waste, food waste in landfills is responsible for an estimated 58 percent (approximately 55 million metric tons C02e) of total landfill methane emissions, equating to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from 15 coal-fired power plants. Landfills also emit hazardous air and water pollutants, odors, and other dangerous gases that impact the health and wellbeing of nearby communities, many of which are disproportionately low-income and/or communities of color. To mitigate these impacts, groups including NRDC are calling on EPA to revise landfill regulations to improve gas collection system coverage and performance, expand methane monitoring, include robust and effective cover requirements, and encourage the diversion of organic waste.  

Global: 

For the first time ever, this year’s United Nations’ Conference of Parties (COP) on climate included a food and agriculture day. Over the course of the two weeks at COP28, more than 600 events related to food and agriculture took place at the venue, and many of them were related to food loss and waste. Several inspiring announcements were made related to food loss and waste at COP: 

• The White House launched the draft National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics. The strategy spans three agencies – EPA, FDA, and USDA – and outlines the actions the agencies will take to help the U.S. meet its national goal of halving food waste by 2030. Comments on the strategy are being accepted through early February.  

• Funded by Bezos Earth Fund, IKEA Foundation, Betsy and Jesse Fink Family Foundation, and Robertson Foundation, the new “Reducing Food Loss and Waste – A Roadmap for Philanthropy” outlines $300 million-worth of global food waste reduction projects ripe for funding.   

• The UN Food & Agriculture Organization published a roadmap outlining priorities for changing global food systems to achieve the target of keeping climate change under 1.5C. This global roadmap identifies ten priority areas, including food loss and waste, crops, and ensuring healthy diets for all. 

• RMI and Clean Air Task Force (CATF), with funding support from The Global Methane Hub and Google.org, unveiled WasteMAP, a new tool to track and reduce waste methane emissions from landfills across the world. The new resources also includes a decision-making tool for policymakers and/or other waste decision makers, allowing them to optimize for better waste management practices. 

In June, NRDC's Food Matters team joined C40, Bloomberg Associates, 5 U.S. cities, and 5 European cities in a tour of Milan's Earthshot prize-winning food rescue hubs. The goal of the trip was to share learnings, insights, and experiences from Milan with cities around the world, and foster a collaborative network for cities advancing strategies to reduce food waste. Our baseline calculator estimates for food waste generation and surpluses helped cities prioritize sectors for targeted interventions following the study tour. We also highlighted key similarities and differences between U.S. and European cities, emphasizing the potential for global cross-city learning and collaboration.  

Food loss and waste had also become a regional priority for North America, as evidenced by the 6 commitments the U.S., Mexico, and Canada made to combat the climate crisis at the North American Leaders Summit. Biden, Lopez Obrador, and Trudeau committed to developing a Food Loss and Waste Reduction Action Plan by the end of 2025, outlining efforts to cut food loss and waste in half by 2030. 

Looking Forward: 

2024 will be a year full of food waste reduction. Our team is motivated to continue to push for policy change at the local, state, and federal levels. We are eager to support communities around the U.S. in securing federal funding to bolster local food waste reduction activities, support the finalization and roll out of the U.S. national strategy, and to participate in the influx of activity around reducing methane emissions from organic waste. All the while, we will continue to refine our practices in our own kitchens to make sure good food always gets eaten.