FLPC Releases New Report Outlining Policy Recommendations to Reduce Food Waste in Pennsylvania

Today, the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic released Moving Food Waste Forward: Policy Recommendations for Next Steps in Pennsylvania, a report providing information and recommendations on how Pennsylvania state and local governments can help reduce food waste. The report applies and refines FLPC’s October 2016 toolkit, Keeping Food out of the Landfill: Policy Ideas for States and Localities, to provide information and recommendations specific to Pennsylvania. Moving Food Waste Forward was commissioned by Philabundance, a hunger relief organization serving 90,000 people in nine counties across Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The report is comprised of ideas and recommendations that emerged from conversations with food waste experts, food recovery organizations, and other stakeholders from around the state, but the report also references information and examples from other states. The recommendations span the following seven policy areas: tax incentives, liability protections, date labels, food safety, school food waste, organic waste bans and waste recycling laws, and government support.

Pennsylvania stakeholders can use the information in this report to determine key policy priorities to reduce the amount of food wasted in the Commonwealth. Philabundance has already begun to do just that, working together with the Mayor or Philadelphia on the food waste reduction component of the City’s Zero Waste and Litter Action Plan. Two recommendations, in particular, have come to the forefront for Philabundance—a food waste recycling law and standardizing date labels—and FLPC is excited to continue working together with them to achieve these goals and reduce food waste!

Read Moving Food Waste Forward: Policy Recommendations for Next Steps in Pennsylvania.