Why New Jersey Lags In Composting
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Status of Community Composting
Why composting is important
Considering that about one-third of the billions of tons food produced in the United States enters the waste stream, composting our food scraps can substantially help to reduce climate change. Most often, food waste is disposed of in landfills. Here the lack of oxygen causes food waste to break down in steps that release methane (CH4), a gas that is 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2) in heating the globe. Composting, on the other hand, produces soil enriching humus, increasing our planet’s sustainability by putting waste products to constructive use in farming, thus reducing the need for fertilizers, chemicals and water. The CO2 released from composted food is recycled in the production of new plant and animal foods and does not contribute to global warming. However, less than optimal composting conditions do lead to varying levels of CH4 production, but well below landfill volumes. As reported in Nature:
Landfills are the third largest source of CH4 emissions in the U.S. GHG inventory, due primarily to the anaerobic decomposition of C-rich organic waste...Composting emissions were 38–84% lower than equivalent landfilling…Our results suggest that increasing the pile aeration and decreasing watering amount or frequency, especially in the middle and end of the composting process could potentially further lower CH4 emissions.
Yet, as of now in New Jersey, we have few ways to compost our food waste. If you live in a town such as Tenafly, Ramsey, Hackensack, Leonia, Princeton, and some others (inquire locally), you can drop off food waste at your town recycling center to be collected by an authorized farm or other composting facility, or even have curbside pick-up of food waste similar to recyclables and yard waste (e.g., Jersey City) for this purpose. However, the options for most New Jersey residents focus on backyard composting where feasible, or pick-up of food scraps by private fee-based services for authorized composting.
An ancient practice, composting is no longer common, and only a handful of companies are taking the lead in solving the enormous food waste problem. Why is this so? My investigations show that the problem is mostly due to regulatory and legislative issues, as well as some obstacles that can be overcome with activism. Recently, some signs of progress toward modernizing and improving our waste management system in New Jersey have begun to emerge.
NJDEP Meeting
In a recent online meeting hosted by the NJDEP, regulatory authorities opened the floor to local stakeholders and industry professionals to put forward ideas for a new and improved regulatory structure surrounding the management of food waste.
Currently, composting facilities in New Jersey operate under stringent and outdated regulatory guidelines. The discussants revealed that the first few compost facilities in New Jersey were improperly managed, leading to strong odors, neighbor complaints, and eventually, an end to operations. These unfortunate events follow a familiar pattern in New Jersey, where waste management has a long and sometimes disturbing history. In Garbage in the Garden State, Jordan P. Howell states,
“...There were landfills all over the state, many of them operated with little oversight and placed in environmentally sensitive locations like wetlands and swamps. And yes, organized crime did play a sensitive role in the history of waste management here.”
The practices of bad players in the past led to the maze of regulations now surrounding all types of waste disposal in New Jersey. While regulators want to stay at the forefront of waste management technology and innovation, environmental precautions and research are a priority that can slow down the modernization. At this time the NJDEP is focused on improving regulations for the State’s large-scale, commercial composting facilities. Updating these composting guidelines would allow commercial composting sites to operate more efficiently with the benefits of new scientific advances.
As small composting businesses and the New Jersey Composting Council are aware, addressing the regulatory needs of the small businesses, as well as community composting, and small-scale composting on local farms will likely be delayed for a few years. However, it’s important to acknowledge that, due at least in part to activism, composting is now more prominently on NJDEP’s radar.
Obstacles to Sensible Composting Legislation
lack of specialized knowledge of this subject in the NJDEP and the NJ legislature
government perception that this is not an urgent issue
opposition by the waste management industry
NIMBYism: In our densely populated state, no one wants a smelly compost facility next door.
Bills Under Consideration
If things go well, within a year or two we may see new guidelines that make composting in communities more accessible. Two bills designed move community composting forward are currently being considered in the New Jersey legislature. The first bill, A2090/S2426, would require each solid waste management district in the State to develop, as part of its district solid waste management plan, a strategy to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030 using a variety of means, including composting. If passed by both houses, this set of companion bills would require regulators to expedite their efforts.
The second bill, A2102 has recently been passed in the Assembly. It would exempt community gardens that operate on-site composting systems from cumbersome DEP permit requirements - providing that the garden accepts a maximum of 200 gallons of food waste per 5,000 square feet and uses the compost primarily for the garden. The companion Senate Bill, S1040, seems considerably different, lifting more DEP permitting requirements but allowing only organic matter from the garden itself, and no outside organic waste (e.g., food scraps from community gardeners) to be composted there. How the Assembly and Senate bills are eventually reconciled in order to become law remains to be seen.
Ultimately, regulatory agencies like the NJDEP will comply with legislative changes. In addition, the dwindling capacity of available landfill space demands that the agency encourage community compost initiatives as part of the solution to that problem.
Reducing Your Own Food Waste Or Your Town’s
In the meantime, you can reduce your household’s food waste by starting a back yard compost pile or hiring a local pick up service. For those who want their towns to adopt a food waste collection service, the first step is to get involved with the town’s Environmental Committee (attend a meeting or contact the committee Chair) to express interest in a community composting program.
Figure 1: A great mantra!
Current Regulations and Reasonable Exemptions
What is and isn’t possible to do in New Jersey for food waste composting? As noted below, some of the current rules could potentially be revised to allow reasonable exemptions - that is, additional community composting access.
You can compost your household’s food scraps in your own backyard.
You cannot allow your neighbors to drop their food scraps into your composter. (A change in this rule would be useful, although the potential for abuse is a drawback.
You can collect food waste from your neighbors and take it to an approved composting facility or livestock farm.
With appropriate town or DPW approval, town residents can collect food waste at the municipal DPW and hire a compost hauler (e.g., Garden State Composting, The Compost Man, Source Compost, Neighborhood Compost, Java’s Compost), to take that waste to an approved compost facility.
You cannot compost food waste at your town’s yard waste composting facility because it does not have a permit for composting food waste. (An allowable limit could be considered in legislation.)
On your farm, you can compost the scraps of crops and livestock which originated on that farm.
On your vegetable farm, you cannot accept food scraps from outside the farm for composting.
On your livestock farm, you can take in food scraps from outside that farm, as long as you are feeding them to your livestock.
You cannot drop your food scraps off at a community garden to be composted, or anywhere else that is not an approved food waste compost facility or livestock farm. (The recently passed NJ Assembly Bill A2102 addresses an allowable limit, but the companion Senate bill allows composting of community garden waste only.)
Currently, You must pay a $15,000 application fee to be an approved food waste compost facility of any size. (A tiered permitting system would be more fair, and fortunately, NJ Senate bill S2426, under consideration, specifies the development of such a system.)
Approved food waste compost facilities must be indoors.
Nonetheless, Senate Bill S2426 and Assembly Bill A2102 have made progress.
How You Can Help
Clearly, the composting issue is actionable. As concerned citizens, it is in our best interest to contact our legislators, and Town Councils and Environmental Commissions to promote local and municipal composting initiatives that benefit us all.
Contact your NJ state legislators
Please call or email:
Senator Paul Sarlo. Show support for Senate bill S2426 by calling his office at (201) 804-8118 and/or using the email link on his page.
Senator Bob Smith. Show support for community composting initiatives and Senate bill S2426 by calling his office at (732) 752-0770 and/or using his email link on his page.
Assemblyperson James Kennedy. Thank him for the community garden composting initiatives in Assembly Bill A2102 by phone at (732) 943-2660 and/or using his email link on his page. Note that this bill has passed.
Senator Linda Greenstein sponsored S1040, the Senate version of the community garden composting bill. Encourage her to reconcile with A2102 by liberalizing the composting options in the Senate bill to more greatly resemble or be identical to those in the Assembly bill.
Call your own NJ State Senator and Assembly People to urge them to support these bills.
Contact the NJDEP
Remind NJDEP regulators that community composting is a top priority for neighborhoods that want to incorporate it into their community gardens. Email NJDEP at recyclingfacilities@dep.nj.gov
Join the New Jersey Compost Council (NJCC), a nonprofit industry group which advances compost manufacturing, compost utilization, and Organics Recycling to benefit our members, our neighborhoods, and the environment.
Do Your Own Composting
Watch for our upcoming article about doing your own composting! Meanwhile, read up on composting and plan to attend Source Compost’s Spring 2025 workshop on this topic.
Conclusions
Because of global warming, it is crucial that food waste stops entering our landfills where it breaks down into the powerful greenhouse gas methane. Therefore, the current NJ legislative activity to improve the food waste guidelines for large-scale, commercial composting facilities are a positive development in relieving the climate of this burden as effectively as possible.
Also needed are improved regulations for local composting businesses and for community gardens with the capacity to recycle food waste. At this time, it is far too expensive for any small, local business to afford the required permits for composting food waste. As a result, the industry in New Jersey is stunted. I applaud the tiered permitting system written into S2426 that is fair to the small businesses that serve our local communities in this important sustainability effort. It is important for us all to continue supporting food waste composting on a community level
In addition, to meet New Jersey’s requirement for halving our food waste by 2030, it is mandatory that schools, restaurants, supermarkets and other food serving and selling establishments compost their food waste, especially plate waste. The legislature has a role to play in developing guidelines for composting this large volume of commercial food waste that is contributing unduly to global warming.
