Two recent articles highlight the new regulations passed in New York City with similar requirements to the Commercial Food Waste Disposal Ban in Massachusetts.  Like our state, New York City will be requiring larger restaurants as well as grocery stores, caterers and other food-related businesses to begin to separate and compost food waste instead of adding it to landfills.  The planned regulations would go into effect in July 2015, a year after the Massachusetts regulations are proposed to take effect.

Of related of interest is the ban on foam food containers; these make recovering food waste more difficult and are themselves especially hard to recycle; manufacturers will have to prove they can be effectively recycled or face a potential ban also beginning in July of 2015.

This article from Waste 360 describes the new legislation, and includes insight from outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg into the city’s goal to divert waste from landfills and double its recycling rate.

More details on the legislation can be found in this article from the New York Times, which includes an overview of the obstacles to its approval.