Massachusetts Eyes Stronger Organics Rules And a Smarter Future

Massachusetts is once again leading where it counts: cutting waste and cutting methane. State officials are exploring an expansion of its organics recycling requirements, a move that would keep hundreds of thousands of tons of food scraps and yard trimmings out of landfills each year and could ignite local job creation and powerful benefits. 

That’s exactly the kind of action experts say is overdue. A 2024 report from MASSPIRG Education Fund, Clean Water Fund, and Frontier Group — How to Reduce Food Waste in Massachusetts — laid out a roadmap for a zero-waste food system built on prevention, recovery, and composting. It found that Massachusetts still disposes of nearly a million tons of wasted food every year — about one-fifth of its trash — and has fallen short of its food waste diversion goals. But it also charts a clear way forward:

• Prevent waste at the source through better food labeling, education, and incentives.

• Rescue edible food by strengthening donation programs and creating tax credits for food recovery

• Invest in composting to restore healthy soils and reduce methane emissions.

• Phase in a full ban on landfilling all food waste by 2030.

The state’s new consideration of enhancing organics recycling is a strong step toward that vision — a practical, proven policy that aligns with every one of the report’s recommendations. When organic waste is buried in landfills, it doesn’t just disappear. It decomposes into methane, a greenhouse gas more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term. Landfills are already one of the nation’s largest sources of methane, and they leak far more than current rules capture or measure.

Expanding Massachusetts’ organics recovery requirements could help change that story. Every ton of food waste composted or recovered is a ton of methane prevented and a win for public health, local economies, and climate action. It’s also a chance to build on the state’s existing leadership: since the original 2014 ban, Massachusetts has tripled its composting capacity, sparked new food donation partnerships, and created local jobs across the food recovery sector.

But the potential goes far beyond food. Stronger organics policies can help Massachusetts plug a major hole in our waste and climate systems by cutting pollution at the source while supporting healthier soils, stronger farms, and thriving communities.

As Full Circle Future’s own research has shown, pairing organics recycling with modern landfill standards see the biggest impact. That’s because keeping food waste out of landfills and ensuring the landfills we do have are tightly managed is a full-circle approach—it’s how we move from waste to wins.

Massachusetts has a real opportunity to lead again. By expanding organics recycling to households and pairing it with robust enforcement and support for composting and food recovery, the state can deliver cleaner air, less waste, and a fairer future for every community.

Expanding organics recycling will help shift more resources toward composting and food recovery while cutting emissions at the source. It’s also a chance to match enforcement and investment with the ambition of the law, ensuring that every community, from Boston to the Berkshires, can participate in a cleaner, fairer system.

As studies have shown, landfills leak far more methane than monitoring captures—over 80% of emissions go undetected under current standards. By keeping organics out of those landfills altogether, Massachusetts can avoid those leaks entirely while turning wasted food into compost, energy, and opportunity.

The path is clear, and it’s one Massachusetts helped blaze a decade ago. With stronger rules, smarter investments, and a commitment to full participation, the Commonwealth can once again prove that climate leadership starts at the landfill gate and ends with healthy soil.

Massachusetts just signaled that it’s ready to take its next big step toward a cleaner, more sustainable waste system. State officials are exploring an expansion of the Commonwealth’s organics recovery requirements, a move that could keep millions of tons of food scraps and yard trimmings out of landfills — and prevent a massive amount of methane pollution in the process.