Illinois Passes New Composting Bill
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
On August 13, 2009, Illinois passed a new composting bill, Senate Bill 99. The bill, sponsored by Senator Heather Steans, opens the door to commercial composting in Illinois. The Environmental Law & Policy Center and other groups provided technical support for drafting and negotiating the bill.
Statewide, organic waste represents 1/3 of the trash brought to Illinois landfills. The new bill creates smarter regulations for commercial composting, making it economically attractive for investors to begin commercial operations. Business plans are already in the works for services that pick up food scraps from Chicago restaurants, compost the material and sell the end product. Composting businesses will create new income and four times as many jobs as traditional waste disposal according to the Institute for Local Self Reliance.
“This bill will literally allow Illinois businesses to make wealth out of waste,” said Mel Nickerson, Staff Attorney at the Environmental Law and Policy Center. “We’ve gotten a lot smarter about reducing waste from materials like paper and aluminum. Now Illinois can change how we deal with food waste, allowing us to create rich compost, lower green house gases and turn a profit.”
Tags: Greener Restaurants, Illinois
August 24th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
This is wonderful news, thank you for working on this and making it happen. One concern is the CO2 and methane that are produced when waste food is being decomposed. Will there be any attempts to compost anaerobically so the biogas can be captured and purified into methane to offset natural gas uses?
May 5th, 2010 at 4:57 am
Hmmm…news to me. Wonder why this didn’t get more publicity?