In July 2012, the Vermont legislature passed, and the Governor signed into law, Act 148, the Universal Recycling Act, which banned landfill disposal of plastic, aluminum and metal containers, tin foil, paper/cardboard, leaf/yard residuals and food scraps. The law made Vermont the first state in the U.S. to require that all food scraps be recycled from all sectors (commercial, institutional, residential) by 2020. Mandatory compliance was phased in over six years, beginning with the largest generators of organic waste (104 tons/year of food scraps generated) on July 1, 2014 — if an organics recycling facility was within 20 miles, had available capacity, and was willing to accept the food residuals.

In April, New York City (NYC) Mayor Bill DeBlasio suspended all public funding for composting in NYC as part of cuts to the City budget in response to COVID-19. The NYC Department of Sanitation’s Curbside Composting program was suspended for at least 14 months, from May 4, 2020, to June 30, 2021. Funding for the NYC Compost Project’s community composting sites was also cut, along with the GrowNYC Zero Waste Program, which manages residential food scraps drop-off sites at NYC’s Green Markets and other locations.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Moving Forward Act (H.R.2) on July 1. The $1.5 trillion proposal to rebuild U.S. communities with infrastructure and innovation addresses “environmental justice, including by investing boldly in affordable housing, expanding affordable high-speed Internet to underserved rural and urban communities, and ensuring that all have access to clean water,” explained House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “H.R. 2 makes a strong down payment on a clean energy future and solving the climate crisis, as we create millions of good-paying jobs.”