Creating a Connecticut Food Waste Prevention and Food Recovery Roadmap
The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is creating a roadmap for food waste prevention and food recovery with assistance from an Environmental Defense Fund/ReFED climate fellow. The roadmap is intended to help develop actionable policy direction.
Food is wasted at every level in the food system, from farms to food processing to grocery stores to our homes. Connecticut's 2015 Waste Characterization Study found 22% of our municipal solid waste is wasted food. And EPA estimates that 70% of that food is edible, with the potential to be eaten.
DEEP is interested in reducing the amount of food that is wasted but understands wasted food is more than just an environmental issue, recognizing the social and economic issues linking waste in the food system with food insecurity and food justice in Connecticut. DEEP has experience helping municipalities divert waste through recycling, composting and anaerobic digestion, and now seeks to learn more about Connecticut's efforts and initiatives around food waste prevention, food recovery and food rescue for humans and animals.
To help develop a policy direction for Connecticut, DEEP wants to understand where the opportunities and challenges lie to encourage food waste prevention and recover more food in different sectors in the Connecticut food system. DEEP wants to create policies and programs based on understanding how things are going now and what resources and/or infrastructure is needed if these efforts are expanded. To achieve this, DEEP has scheduled listening sessions to hear from different sectors within the food system, state agencies in Connecticut, Oregon, California, New York, and more.
DEEP held a Food Waste Prevention and Food Recovery Roadmap Working Session on July 18, 2023. Slides from that session can be viewed here.
Please contact Sherill Baldwin at sherill.baldwin@ct.gov if you have any questions or would like to get involved.
Related Information
Food Waste Reduction and RecoveryWebpage last updated July 18, 2023.