PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 2, 2024
Mainers generate more than 230,000 tons of food waste each year. Most of this is sent to landfills where it breaks down to produce methane, a powerful climate-damaging greenhouse gas. Wasting all this food doesn’t make sense, especially when hunger is prevalent across the state and thousands of tons of food scraps could easily be composted to create fertilizer. L.D. 1009 would require large food waste generators — those that produce more than two tons of food waste per week — to divert their food waste from landfills to food banks and food pantries. The rest of their food waste would be sent to be recycled. Unfortunately, the bill has sat on the appropriations desk without any indication of whether it will move. ~ Peter Blair, Just Zero, a fighting the environmental harms created by our existing waste systems