CET has helped many businesses and institutions in Connecticut learn more about food recovery and wasted food diversion opportunities. When it comes to preventing and diverting a wide range of materials from disposal, we can offer no-cost support! We help a range of businesses, from those that are just getting started to those who want to take their existing efforts to the next level.
Whether you’re looking to reduce wasted food, or just your waste in general, we can help.
Call: 888-813-8552 | E-mail: wastedfood@cetonline.org
Helpful Connecticut Wasted Food Resources
- Wasted food reduction and recovery in Connecticut
- Connecticut DEEP’s resources on how to recover food and reduce wasted food.
- Map of Food Waste in Connecticut
- Connecticut DEEP’s map for identifying, quantifying, and mapping wasted food from Connecticut businesses and institutions.
- Composting and Anaerobic Digestion Facilities in Connecticut
- Connecticut DEEP’s website includes facilities that accept certain types of wasted food.
- Connecticut Food Donation Made Easy
- This food rescue guidance document is part of a series aimed at helping commercial food service providers – e.g., restaurants, hotels, corporate cafeterias, and schools – reduce the volume of organic waste they send to landfills.
- Food Donation by Connecticut Schools Guidelines and Resources
- CET, in collaboration with Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Department of Public Health, Department of Education, Department of Agriculture, and others, developed a guidance document for Connecticut schools on opportunities to donate food internally through share tables as well as externally to food banks and charitable organizations. The document consolidates federal and state regulations, including information on liability protection, health codes, and more.
- Food Scraps Diversion Guide for West Hartford Public Schools
- CET provides guidance on how to implement a district-wide food scraps diversion program.
- How to donate food to the Connecticut Food Bank
- The Connecticut Food Bank provides guidance on how to donate food (in Fairfield, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, New London, and Windham counties).
- How to donate food to Connecticut Foodshare
- Connecticut Foodshare provides both pick-up and drop-off services for food donation (Hartford and Tolland counties).
Stories to Inspire
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The Sheraton Hotel at Bradley International Airport reached out to CET for help diverting their food waste by composting. This enabled them to reduce their waste pickups from 4 times a week to 1 time a week!
In 2016, a class project at Middlebrook Middle School inspired their cafeteria’s food waste diversion program and transformed the Wilton School District.
Through support from Middletown Sanitation Department, the EPA, and CT DEEP, the Center for EcoTechnology put together this instructional video with Blue Earth Compost and their customer Perk on Main to help other restaurants set up and operate successful food scrap diversion programs for anaerobic digestion. By participating in this innovative program, businesses reduce trash generation, support local jobs, and help create energy and compost.
Connecticut Legal & Regulatory Requirements
- How to comply with the Connecticut organics recycling law
- The Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) provides information on how to comply with the Connecticut commercial organics recycling law
- The Connecticut Commercial Organics Recycling Law (Public Act 11-217), in effect as of January 2017, states that commercial food wholesalers or distributors, industrial food manufacturers or processors, supermarkets, resorts, or conference centers that 1) produce 52 or more tons per year (1 ton per week) of organic waste and 2) are located within 20 miles of a permitted recycling facility, must recycle organic material. Compliance options under the law include on-site composting, or installation of permitted on-site organics treatment equipment. The threshold was reduced from 104 tons per year to 52 tons per year on January 1, 2020.
- Public Act (PA) No. 21-16, approved in May 2021, requires that “on and after January 1, 2022, each commercial food wholesaler or distributor, industrial food manufacturer or processor, supermarket, resort or conference center that is located not more than 20 miles from an authorized source separated organic material composting facility and that generates an average projected volume of not less than 26 tons/year of source separated organic materials shall: (A) Separate such source separated organic materials from other solid waste; and (B) ensure that such source separated organic materials are recycled at any authorized source separated organic material composting facility that has available capacity and that will accept such source separated organic material.”
- Helpful fact sheets on food donation laws from the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic
- Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act
- The Federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act (Public Law 104-210) protects donors from liability when donating to nonprofit organizations and protects donors from civil and criminal liability should the product, donated in good faith, later cause harm to the needy recipient.
In the Press:
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Connecticut wastes too much food, but help is on the way– News 8
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Connecticut using fed funds for projects to curb food waste– New Haven Register
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Grants aim to reduce food waste– Journal Inquirer
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Middlebrook School focuses on food donations in cafeteria– The Hour
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Zero Waste Connecticut Schools Coalition Forming– Patch News
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First Zero Waste meeting draws 50– Wilton Bulletin