As the year comes to a close and we look forward to another, National Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) food waste team reflected on all we’ve accomplished this year and what we’re most excited for in 2024. At the local level, NRDC continues to support governments and organizations through our Food Matters initiative. At the beginning of 2023, Food Matters expanded its reach by including additional cities and counties as technical support partners. Collaborative efforts to implement various food waste solutions are underway in 21 U.S. cities and counties. Our thriving knowledge sharing network hosts monthly calls covering a range of topics, from how to apply for federal grant opportunities to holiday food waste campaigns.
We are continually pleased to see federal and state funding flowing into cities through initiatives such as the EPA Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling and Recycling Education and Outreach grants, the USDA Food Waste and Composting Cooperative Agreements, and other federal funding opportunities. For example, the City of Baltimore, a longtime Food Matters partner, received $4 million to develop a solar-powered composting facility that is projected to annually divert 12,000 tons of food scraps and other organic materials from landfills and incinerators.
We continue to update and expand our tools and resources focused on helping local governments reduce food waste, including adding to our suite of model municipal policies, produced in partnership with the Environmental Law Institute. In the past year, we produced a Model Executive Order on Municipal Leadership on Food Waste Reduction, designed to give local governments options to “lead by example” by instituting policies and programs to raise awareness about and reduce food waste, as well as a Model Ordinance Establishing a Pay-As-You-Throw Program for Residential Municipal Solid Waste, intended to support local governments looking to reduce waste generation and ensure more municipal discards are recycled or composted.