Uncertainty over food recovery payment coupled with high fuel costs prove hurdles for California grocery stores, food banks, and small towns to implement a California law requiring edible food waste from grocery stores and food suppliers be diverted to food rescue organizations or meal centers, reports Reuters.
The law requires national retailers and small grocery and convenience stores alike to donate unsold edible food, and compost inedible waste, with the statewide goal of recovery of 20 percent of edible food by 2025. California is the first state where food waste must be donated for human consumption.
Small towns worry they do not have the infrastructure in place to abide by this new law and have already submitted over 500 waivers to indicate this inability, according to the report. Many local establishments lack the proper systems to track and divert food waste.
"I can't send the truck all over town, picking up leftover sandwiches…The more we have to spend on fuel, the less food we can buy. It's pretty cut and dry." said Tom Dearmore, director of community services at the Butte County Community Action Agency, which houses the food bank.
According to Chelsea Minor, corporate director at Raley’s Supermarkets, a 250-store chain across California, Nevada, and Arizona, the company has had to pay compost pickup fees that some small towns have incurred even though the supermarkets ship the food waste directly to a private company.
CalRecycle, the state recycling agency has been trying to absorb some added costs from the law by helping food banks with refrigeration devices and trucks to manage the influx of food donations. Machi Wagoner, director of CalRecycle, believes, “It’s really incumbent upon the local government to figure out how they’re going to implement their system.” Full Story
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