Composting Ordinances
Due to existing and emerging laws and ordinances that require small businesses and restaurants to compost food and organic material, there is a very high demand for an efficient composting technologies. Urban areas like San Francisco and Chicago are leaders in creating and enforcing composting ordinances. Many cities are also creating composting programs that connect small businesses with community gardens and urban farms. Farm-to-Table is a growing trend in urban restaurants. Using compost from food scraps and organic material, restaurants are able to use their compost as soil for their personal gardens.
San Francisco
The city's Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance (No. 100-09), enacted in 2009, requires that all citizens and businesses of San Francisco separate their compost and recyclables from waste that goes to landfills. Currently, residents and businesses are supplied with three disposal bins to separate their waste. The Food Service Waste Reduction Ordinance (No. 295-06), effective as of June 1, 2007, requires restaurants and food vendors to use serviceware that is made of compostable materials, such as cardboard. This has decreased the volume of materials such as styrofoam in San Francisco's landfills, reducing the carbon emissions that they produce. Similarly, the Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance, adopted in October of 2009, requires businesses and restaurants to use compostable or reusable bags during checkout.
Chicago
Chicago requires businesses and food distributors to compost their food scraps that are produced. By doing this, Chicago hopes to diminish the amount of food that goes into landfills. Chicago has also continued to expand their urban farm programs. In 2011, Mayor Emanuel passed the Urban Farm Ordinance. The ordinance's goal was to incentivize more people to start urban gardens by lowering startup costs, and reducing fencing and parking requirements. Chicago continued their efforts in sustainable urban gardens by introducing an ordinance that expands the permitted materials an individual can compost for urban farms. This ordinance now allows food scraps to be used as compost for soil production in city farms. Through this ordinance, businesses and farms can create connections for sustainable farming. The produce is then used as ingredients in local restaurants.
Vermont
According to the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Vermont residences produce 3.15 pounds of waste daily. In 2012, the state of Vermont passed the Universal Recycling Law (Act 1480). This law requires that all residences of Vermont separate and recycle three types of waste that are compostable. The three types of waste that must be separated are food waste, clean wood, and paper-based goods such as cardboard. Through these ordinances, Vermont hopes to achieve its goal of zero food waste in landfills by 2020. Also, businesses that generate over 104 tons of food scraps annually are required to donate it to local farms for livestock or compost.
