Vegetable and Fruit Scraps
In California, throwing away kitchen food scraps in the trash can could be breaking state law, and similar regulations are taking effect across multiple states. Organics like all food scraps, yard trimmings, and uncoated paper make up half of what Californians dump in landfills each year. Honestly, it surprised me how much of our everyday waste falls under these new regulations. Things like apple cores, banana peels, and carrot tops that we’ve casually tossed for decades are now regulated materials in certain jurisdictions. Starting April 1, New York City residents will be fined between $25 and $100 for not putting things like fish bones, food scraps, coffee filters, and dirty pizza boxes in the brown composting bins.
Coffee Grounds and Tea Bags
The process of composting can be done with scraps from many different types of food – including fruits, vegetables, meat, bones, fish, shellfish, eggshells, bread, grains, and coffee grounds. Coffee grounds and tea bags fall squarely within mandatory composting requirements that are spreading nationwide. Vermont’s regulations are particularly strict here. Keeping food scraps out of the trash saves landfill space and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, according to state environmental agencies. The simple act of separating your morning coffee grounds can have real environmental impact when multiplied across millions of households.
Meat and Bone Scraps
Here’s where it gets interesting. For backyard compost, meat and bones can go in the trash. Same for fish and poultry in Vermont for home composters, yet this exemption doesn’t apply everywhere. If you are composting at home, you can include any type of leftover that does not contain meat, fish, fats, or oils. The law allows you to put these types of leftovers in the trash. If you bring your food scraps to a drop-off site or transfer station, you can include all types of leftovers, even meat or fish. The regulations vary depending on whether you’re managing waste yourself or using municipal services. It’s confusing, I know.
Dairy Products
Composting materials include fruit scraps, vegetables, meat, bones, dairy, prepared food, napkins, paper towels, tea bags, coffee filters, and pizza boxes according to New York City’s Department of Sanitation. Dairy products like old yogurt, spoiled milk, and cheese rinds must be separated from regular trash in jurisdictions with organic waste bans. Dairy isn’t a problem for backyard composting, unless it’s a massive amount of stuff. Anything that was once food can return back into soil, and dairy is no different in this case. The key difference lies in how you’re disposing of it.
Bread and Grain Products
Stale bread, expired pasta, and old cereal boxes represent another category of food scraps now regulated under state composting laws. Vermont passed a Universal Recycling Law in 2012 banning food scraps from landfills by commercial businesses and residential households. Instead, food scraps can either be donated for human or animal consumption, composted or diverted to an anaerobic or organic food waste processing facility. The law is comprehensive and includes grain-based foods. This ban requires everyone in Vermont – from residents to businesses and institutions – to keep their food waste out of the trash.
Eggshells
Residents still mix in the eggshells and food-stained napkins with the trash, requiring maintenance staff to sort through it. Building staff have to dig through the garbage, find food scraps, spaghetti, fruit, fish bones, and split it up. Eggshells might seem insignificant, but they’re explicitly included in organic waste mandates. California’s law is especially strict about this. When we reach our 75% goal, it will be like taking 3 million cars off of the road, according to CalRecycle officials describing the environmental impact of diverting organic waste.
Food-Soiled Paper Products
Sanitation officials have emphasized that food-soiled paper, such as napkins and pizza boxes, are compostable and should not be thrown in the trash. This category catches many people off guard. Used paper towels, greasy napkins, and yes, even those pizza boxes you’ve been recycling wrong for years belong in organic waste bins. Paper towels and cardboard are also compostable. Your food-soiled pizza boxes can become compost. The regulations are clearer than most people realize once you understand the basic principle.
Prepared and Leftover Foods
In the U.S., food is the single most common material sent to landfills, comprising 24.1 percent of municipal solid waste. Leftover spaghetti, spoiled casseroles, and takeout you forgot in the fridge all fall under these bans. Starting Jan. 1, city and county officials can begin issuing fines and penalties for improper disposal of food waste. According to CalRecycle, the correct way to dispose of food waste varies for each resident. The variation between jurisdictions makes compliance tricky, but the underlying principle remains consistent across all these laws.
Seafood and Fish Waste
Fish bones, shrimp shells, and crab legs represent some of the smelliest candidates for your compost bin. Leaf and yard waste, food scraps, and food-soiled paper should be set out inside labeled bins with secure lids or in DSNY brown compost bins in New York City. For buildings with one to eight units, fines start at $25 for the first offense, whereas buildings with nine of more units will face fines starting at $100. The penalties for noncompliance vary by building size, making landlords particularly concerned about tenant education.
Yard Trimmings Mixed With Food Waste
Leaf and yard waste can also be compostable. However, the agency says food waste should only be mixed with leaf and yard waste when using a bin with a secure lid. This regulation addresses contamination concerns that plague municipal composting facilities. Before 2023, the contamination rate for Modesto’s organic containers was 18%. The contamination rate now stands at an average of 3%. Education efforts have proven remarkably effective at improving compliance rates when residents understand the rules.
All Organic Waste in Universal Recycling States
Vermont is one of just nine states with a law requiring people to compost their organics. Vermont’s Universal Recycling Law prohibits the disposal of food scraps in the trash, has been in effect since July 1, 2020. These comprehensive bans cover essentially all food waste materials. Food is the most prevalent material disposed in municipal landfills and incinerators in the United States, amounting to 24 percent of landfill contents. This is a significant climate issue because food decomposing in landfills generates methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times as powerful as carbon dioxide in the near term. The environmental stakes are genuinely high, which explains why enforcement has intensified across the country in recent years. As food waste breaks down in municipal solid waste landfills, it produces methane, a greenhouse gas more than 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Landfills are the United States’ third highest emitter of methane, and more than half of those emissions come from wasted food.
What surprised you most about these regulations?
