HomeMy WebLinkAboutRCW 70A.205.715RCW 70A.205.715 Food waste reduction—Goal—Plan—Definitions.
(1) A goal is established for the state to reduce by fifty percent the
amount of food waste generated annually by 2030, relative to 2015
levels. A subset of this goal must include a prevention goal to reduce
the amount of edible food that is wasted.
(2) The department may estimate 2015 levels of wasted food in
Washington using any combination of solid waste reporting data
obtained under this chapter and surveys and studies measuring wasted
food and food waste in other jurisdictions. For the purposes of
measuring progress towards the goal in subsection (1) of this section,
the department must adopt standardized metrics and processes for
measuring or estimating volumes of wasted food and food waste
generated in the state.
(3) By October 1, 2020, the department, in consultation with the
department of agriculture and the department of health, must develop
and adopt a state wasted food reduction and food waste diversion plan
designed to achieve the goal established in subsection (1) of this
section.
(a) The wasted food reduction and food waste diversion plan must
include strategies, in descending order of priority, to:
(i) Prevent and reduce the wasting of edible food by residents
and businesses;
(ii) Help match and support the capacity for edible food that
would otherwise be wasted with food banks and other distributors that
will ensure the food reaches those who need it; and
(iii) Support productive uses of inedible food materials,
including using it for animal feed, energy production through
anaerobic digestion, or other commercial uses, and for off-site or on-
site management systems including composting, vermicomposting, or
other biological systems.
(b) The wasted food reduction and food waste diversion plan must
be designed to:
(i) Recommend a regulatory environment that optimizes activities
and processes to rescue safe, nutritious, edible food;
(ii) Recommend a funding environment in which stable, predictable
resources are provided to wasted food prevention and rescue and food
waste recovery activities in such a way as to allow the development of
additional capacity and the use of new technologies;
(iii) Avoid placing burdensome regulations on the hunger relief
system, and ensure that organizations involved in wasted food
prevention and rescue, and food waste recovery, retain discretion to
accept or reject donations of food when appropriate;
(iv) Provide state technical support to wasted food prevention
and rescue and food waste recovery organizations;
(v) Support the development and distribution of equitable
materials to support food waste and wasted food educational and
programmatic efforts in K-12 schools, in collaboration with the office
of the superintendent of public instruction, and aligned with the
Washington state science and social studies learning standards; and
(vi) Facilitate and encourage restaurants and other retail food
establishments to safely donate food to food banks and food assistance
programs through education and outreach to retail food establishment
operators regarding safe food donation opportunities, practices, and
benefits.
(c) The wasted food reduction and food waste diversion plan must
include suggested best practices that local governments may
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incorporate into solid waste management plans developed under RCW
70A.205.040.
(d) The department must solicit feedback from the public and
interested stakeholders throughout the process of developing and
adopting the wasted food reduction and food waste diversion plan. To
assist with its food waste reduction plan development
responsibilities, the department may designate a stakeholder advisory
panel. If the department designates a stakeholder advisory panel, it
must consist of local government health departments, local government
solid waste departments, food banks, hunger-focused nonprofit
organizations, waste-focused nonprofit organizations, K-12 public
education, and food businesses or food business associations.
(e) The department must identify the sources of scientific,
economic, or other technical information it relied upon in developing
the plan required under this section, including peer-reviewed science.
(f) In conjunction with the development of the wasted food
reduction and food waste diversion plan, the department and the
departments of agriculture and health must consider recommending
changes to state law, including changes to food quality, labeling, and
inspection requirements under chapter 69.80 RCW and any changes in
laws relating to the donation of food waste or wasted food for
animals, in order to achieve the goal established in subsection (1) of
this section. Any such recommendations must be explained via a report
to the legislature submitted consistent with RCW 43.01.036 by December
1, 2020. Prior to any implementation of the plan, for the activities,
programs, or policies in the plan that would impose new obligations on
state agencies, local governments, businesses, or citizens, the
December 1, 2020, report must outline the plan for making regulatory
changes identified in the report. This outline must include the
department or the appropriate state agency's plan to make
recommendations for statutory or administrative rule changes
identified. In combination with any identified statutory or
administrative rule changes, the department or the appropriate state
agency must include expected cost estimates for both government
entities and private persons or businesses to comply with any
recommended changes.
(4) In support of the development of the plan in subsection (3)
of this section, the department of commerce must contract for an
independent evaluation of the state's food waste and wasted food
management system.
(5) The definitions in this subsection apply throughout this
section unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
(a)(i) "Food waste" means waste from fruits, vegetables, meats,
dairy products, fish, shellfish, nuts, seeds, grains, and similar
materials that results from the storage, preparation, cooking,
handling, selling, or serving of food for human consumption.
(ii) "Food waste" includes, but is not limited to, excess,
spoiled, or unusable food and includes inedible parts commonly
associated with food preparation such as pits, shells, bones, and
peels. "Food waste" does not include dead animals not intended for
human consumption or animal excrement.
(b) "Prevention" refers to avoiding the wasting of food in the
first place and represents the greatest potential for cost savings and
environmental benefits for businesses, governments, and consumers.
(c) "Recovery" refers to processing inedible food waste to
extract value from it, through composting, anaerobic digestion, or for
use as animal feedstock.
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(d) "Rescue" refers to the redistribution of surplus edible food
to other users.
(e) "Wasted food" means the edible portion of food waste. [2020
c 20 s 1204; 2019 c 255 s 2. Formerly RCW 70.95.815.]
Finding—Intent—2019 c 255: "(1) The legislature finds that the
wasting of food represents a misuse of resources, including the water,
land, energy, labor, and capital that go into growing, harvesting,
processing, transporting, and retailing food for human consumption.
Wasting edible food occurs all along the food production supply chain,
and reducing the waste of edible food is a goal that can be achieved
only with the collective efforts of growers, processors, distributors,
retailers, consumers of food, and food bankers and related charities.
Inedible food waste can be managed in ways that reduce negative
environmental impacts and provide beneficial results to the land, air,
soil, and energy infrastructure. Efforts to reduce the waste of food
and expand the diversion of food waste to beneficial end uses will
also require the mindful support of government policies that shape the
behavior and waste reduction opportunities of each of those
participants in the food supply chain.
(2) Every year, American consumers, businesses, and farms spend
billions of dollars growing, processing, transporting, and disposing
of food that is never eaten. That represents tens of millions of tons
of food sent to landfills annually, plus millions of tons more that
are discarded or left unharvested on farms. Worldwide, the United
Nations food and agriculture organization has estimated that if one-
fourth of the food lost or wasted globally could be saved, it would be
enough to feed eight hundred seventy million hungry people. Meanwhile,
one in eight Americans is food insecure, including one in six
children. Recent data from the department of ecology indicate that
Washington is not immune to food waste problems, and recent estimates
indicate that seventeen percent of all garbage sent to Washington
disposal facilities is food waste, including eight percent that is
food that was determined to be edible at the time of disposal. In
recognition of the widespread benefits that would accrue from
reductions in food waste, in 2015, the administrator of the United
States environmental protection agency and the secretary of the United
States department of agriculture announced a national goal of reducing
food waste by fifty percent by 2030. The Pacific Coast collaborative
recently agreed to a similar commitment of halving food waste by 2030,
including efforts to prevent, rescue, and recover wasted food.
(3) By establishing state wasted food reduction goals and
developing a state wasted food reduction strategy, it is the intent of
the legislature to continue its national leadership in solid waste
reduction efforts by:
(a) Improving efficiencies in the food production and
distribution system in order to reduce the cradle to grave greenhouse
gas emissions associated with wasted food;
(b) Fighting hunger by more efficiently diverting surplus food to
feed hungry individuals and families in need; and
(c) Supporting expansion of management facilities for inedible
food waste to improve access and facility performance while reducing
the volumes of food that flow through those facilities." [2019 c 255 s
1.]
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