California Air Resources Board

The new proposed definition of food scraps is very concerning, restrictive and conflicting with Calrecycle. The last sentence stating what is excluded needs to be deleted. Food scraps now excludes waste streams that are landfilled.

The Food Scraps definition needs to remove the last sentence carve out for these reasons:

Not conflict with Calrecycle
Not set a dangerous precedent with SB 1440 that will exclude food waste feedstock by mere arbitrary carve out in CARB defintion
Follow consistent methodology of tracking statewide average of food waste fraction to landfill from all sources.
Issues are that Food Scraps excludes the following:

Liquid waste - many processers convert food waste into liquid form for transportation purposes and compatibility with AD facilities that have hose connections vs solids receiving bins or tip floors. Adding water to landfill food waste suddenly excludes from food scraps. No logical.
Industrial food processing, Manufacturing, Distribution facilities
All these facilities produce food waste and all food waste in California follows statewide average of landfilled fraction. All food waste should be treated the same following statewide average.
The same food waste from manufacturers and distribution centers is sent to grocery stores where wasted food is considered Food Scraps, and same for downstream residential and commercial users.
Food waste from these sources is considered food waste by Calrecycle and these generators are subject to the same SB 1383 requirements (they do not get waivers because their food waste doesn't go to landfill, so why would CARB assume all their food waste is 100% diverted?).

Strong recommendation: Remove the last sentence of the definition of food scraps. A definition should state affirmative inclusion, and not exclusions. If a material does not fall in the affirmative inclusion of what Food Scraps is, then by default it is not included. By stating affirmative inclusion and exclusions, this introduces confusion if it's in or out.

Second, the 75% landfill capture rate still needs to be changed. In addition to the Oct 2023 EPA paper stating 39% landfill capture for national average this paper from Science is corroborating the same finding the landfills emit far more methane than assumed. The evidence from Nature, Science, and EPA is overwhelmingly clear - 75% is scientifically wrong. (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi7735#tab-contributors)