Connecticut's trash crisis needs immediate attention, so it's encouraging to see strong proposals from both Governor Ned Lamont (HB 6664) and State Representative Mary Muskinsky (HB 5577). Both projects aim to reduce the amount of material that ends up in the solid waste stream by increasing the separation of food waste, which accounts for about 22 percent of the state's waste, composting facilities, encouraging supermarkets and more. Donate excess food to feed the hungry instead of throwing it away.
Not only will this legislation go a long way toward solving Connecticut's waste crisis, but diverting food waste from our waste stream will also create opportunities to protect wildlife across the state.
Here's how to do it. Reduce the amount of leftover food for mice and rats and you won't have to use poisons that kill hawks, owls and foxes. The Environment Committee is also considering this session SB 962. The bill prohibits the use of second-generation anticoagulants that are lethal to birds of prey, foxes and other predators that use rodents that have ingested SGARS. Why destroy the best natural rodent control solutions? A family of barn owls can eat up to 3,000 rodents during the breeding season.
Similarly, removing food waste from household trash cans and commercial trash cans will also reduce unwanted interactions with Connecticut's regenerating black bear populations. The Darien-based animal rights group supports laws such as HB 5405, as amended, that would encourage communities to help homeowners and businesses reduce access to food attractive to black bears in areas of bear-human conflict .
What attracts a wild bear from the forest to your home? The smell of food waste in the garbage. Efforts to recycle and compost food waste, along with a grant program to lower the cost of bear-proof trash containers, will keep wild bears and people safe.
For these reasons and more, legislation is desperately needed to reduce food waste in Connecticut. Government landfills are overflowing, especially with food waste, which releases climate-damaging methane. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, food waste in landfills is the third largest source of methane emissions in the United States (15 percent), behind oil (30 percent) and gas production and animal manure (27 percent ).
The cost of removing excess waste from a state skyrockets, and removing a waste problem from a state is as bad for the environment as it is morally wrong. Even worse, Connecticut's furnaces, which aren't ideal for generating electricity in the first place, are clogged with all the moldy and damp waste.
Switching to food waste recycling and food waste composting will address all of these issues and more, such as helping to improve our state's degraded soil health and biodiversity by using locally produced compost.
31 percent of food grown, transported or sold today goes to waste. Practical solutions to the food waste crisis already exist in other countries. California is now requiring grocery stores and restaurants to take most of the food and donate it to those in need. It also encourages residents to put unused food in the bins they use for other "green" waste such as grass clippings and leaves.
New York State began 2022 by requiring companies that generate two or more tons of food waste per week to donate food to those in need or recycle the food waste, much of which is composted. A pilot program involving 1,000 families in Meriden forces them to put their food scraps in plastic bags along with their regular garbage. This is converted into renewable energy and composted, removing 2.5 tonnes of food waste per month from the waste stream.
These efforts are reasonable. They are available. California's new law aims for 75 percent of green waste to be recycled, composted or used to produce biogas, an energy source similar to natural gas, by 2025. In South Korea in 1995, only 2 percent of food waste was recycled. Now this indicator reaches 95 percent.
It's time for Connecticut to take a coordinated, comprehensive approach to reducing food waste, restoring the environment, protecting wildlife and mitigating climate change. Take these suggested receipts with you. reduce food waste and improve composting; Stop the rodent killer. and reduce human-bear interactions by eliminating food attractions. Do this, and the Environmental Commission will provide Connecticut residents with a successful path to a better, more sustainable future for all.
Scott Smith is the Director of Public Relations for Animal Friends of Darien.
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