(1)(a) The state establishes a goal for the landfill disposal of organic materials at a level representing a 75 percent reduction by 2030 in the statewide disposal of organic material waste, relative to 2015 levels.
(b) The state establishes a goal that no less than 20 percent of the volume of edible food that was disposed of as of 2015 be recovered for human consumption by 2025.
(2) The provisions of subsection (1) of this section are in addition to the food waste reduction goals of RCW
70A.205.715(1).
Findings—Intent—2022 c 180: "(1) The legislature finds that landfills are a significant source of emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Among other economic and environmental benefits, the diversion of organic materials to productive uses will reduce methane emissions.
(2) In order to reduce methane emissions associated with organic materials, the legislature finds that it will be beneficial to improve a variety of aspects of how organic materials and organic material wastes are reduced, managed, incentivized, and regulated under state law. Therefore, it is the intent of the legislature to support the diversion of organic materials from landfills through a variety of interventions to support productive uses of organic material wastes, including by:
(a) Requiring some local governments to begin providing separated organic material collection services within their jurisdictions in order to increase volumes of organic materials collected and delivered to composting and other organic material management facilities and reduce the volumes of organic materials collected in conjunction with other solid waste and delivered to landfills;
(b) Requiring local governments to consider state organic material management goals and requirements in the development of their local solid waste plans;
(c) Requiring some businesses to manage their organic material wastes in a manner that does not involve landfilling them, in order to address one significant source of organic materials that currently frequently end up in landfills;
(d) Reducing legal liability risk barriers to the donation of edible food in order to encourage the recovery of foods that might otherwise be landfilled;
(e) Establishing the Washington center for sustainable food management within the department of ecology in order to coordinate and improve statewide food waste reduction and diversion efforts;
(f) Establishing various new funding and financial incentives intended to increase composting and other forms of productive organic materials management, helping to make the responsible management of organic materials more cost-competitive with landfilling of organic material wastes;
(g) Facilitating the siting of organic material management facilities in order to ensure that adequate capacity exists to process organic materials at the volumes necessary to achieve state organic material diversion goals;
(h) Encouraging cities and counties to procure more of the compost and finished products created from their organic material wastes in order to support the economic viability of processes to turn organic materials into finished products, and increasing the likelihood that composting and other responsible organic material management options are economically viable; and
(i) Amending standards related to the labeling of plastic and compostable products in order to reduce contamination of the waste streams handled by compost and organic material management facilities and improve the economic viability of those responsible organic material management options." [
2022 c 180 s 1.]
