Massachusetts produced about 6.2 million tons of trash in 2023. That’s a huge, meaningless number, but reframe it this way: Each one of us in Massachusetts is responsible, on average, for more than 1,700 pounds of trash annually.
After decades of increasing trash production, coupled with landfill constraints, we simply don’t have enough room for all our junk. Currently, Massachusetts sends about 45 percent of its trash to other states, according to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. Out of sight, out of mind.
But there is a better solution than counting on our neighbors to keep accepting our junk — we could just generate less trash. And the most impactful way to do that would be to cut down on wasted food.
“It’s the single largest material in our solid waste stream. Our most recent data show it around 23 percent of our municipal solid waste,’’ John Fischer, MassDEP’s deputy division director, solid waste, told the editorial board.
The federal government estimates that up to 40 percent of food in the United States gets squandered. Wasted food is wasted money at the grocery store — the average family of four in the United States loses $1,500 annually on food it doesn’t consume.
Producing unnecessary food is also bad for the environment. Using excess land, fuel, and fertilizer to grow crops and raise livestock, then transporting that food, drives up greenhouse gas emissions and wastes water and other resources.
In 2014, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection took a big step to address this issue by banning the disposal of food waste from large businesses and institutions. Those include grocery stores, wholesalers, schools, and large restaurants. In 2022, the ban was expanded to companies and organizations that generate at least a half-ton of food waste each week, more restrictive than the former limit of a ton. MassDEP is now considering going even further. It should.
The stated goal is to reduce the state’s food waste by 35 percent by the end of the decade, compared with a baseline of 2018. In 2024, the state diverted 370,000 tons of food waste from landfills, an impressive figure, but less than halfway to the mark.
The US EPA has established a hierarchy of what to do with unused food. At the top is reducing excess food produced in the first place (which also reduces food demands and costs), followed by using food to feed the hungry.
Each day across Massachusetts, refrigerated trucks from organizations such as Spoonfuls crisscross the state, picking up unused food from grocers, schools, farms, and wholesalers, then delivering it to food pantries and shelters. Deliveries can include fruits and vegetables that are still in good condition but have been at the store too long, an olive oil brand that’s not selling and taking up shelf space, or ready-to-heat meals that went unsold. The organization says it transports 120,000 pounds of food each week.
“There’s a lot of food that grocery stores are going to throw away. There’s a lot of people who need it,’’ said Jimmy Doulos, a food recovery coordinator who drives a Spoonfuls truck across Greater Boston.
The state is relying on nonprofits like Spoonfuls, which runs on philanthropic donations and grants, to make the logistics of food recovery work. That infrastructure needs to be beefed up, and more money should be dedicated to helping these organizations. In Massachusetts, roughly 37 percent of households faced food insecurity in 2024, but only a fraction of discarded food goes to feed people. The vast majority goes to anaerobic digestion plants to create biogas for energy and fertilizer, a lower rung on the EPA hierarchy chart.
MassDEP sends notices to bad actors that aren’t following guidelines. Fischer said even better than a slap on the wrist is raising awareness, “educating businesses about the fact that we have these disposal bans, why we have them, and how we can actually help them to comply. If we can get compliance that way, that’s a much more efficient use of our resources.’’
Governor Maura Healey also signed a budget in June providing an up to $5,000 tax credit for farmers who send excess food to pantries and shelters, rather than to a digester. Healey’s budget will be negotiated with the Legislature in the coming weeks.
Cities and towns can also do more to encourage better practices within the home. MassDEP estimates that 26.5 percent of household trash is food waste. Some tips to cut that down include meal planning, eating leftovers, and making a grocery list to prevent impulse buying.
And to not be so quick to discard food. It’s often not moldy food people toss out, but fruits and vegetables that just don’t look as pretty as when they bought them. For packaged food and drinks, “best by’’ or “sell by’’ labels are suggestions, not strict health guidelines (with the exception of infant formula and “very limited’’ instances related to poultry and egg products). Food experts say first rely on your senses to determine if food is still OK. California’s first-in-the-nation law to standardize labels took effect in July. The Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, a consumer and environmental advocacy organization, is also calling for standardized labelling rules to reduce confusion.
For those inevitable scraps, from banana peels to that genuinely spoiled food, composting is the best option. The practice is catching on — across Massachusetts, 160 municipalities report some type of food waste collection system — but more curbside options, with more consumer education, are needed.
Collectively, these actions can make a serious dent in our landfill problem. Reducing food waste would be a win for the environment, our pocketbooks, and our tax coffers (shipping off trash is expensive). Out of sight, out of mind can’t continue to be the norm.