Zero Food Waste Act Authorizes $650M Annually to Cut Waste by 50% by 2035

The newly introduced Zero Food Waste Act is essentially a massive federal push to clean up our collective plate. This legislation sets a concrete national goal: slash food waste by 50% by 2035, measured against 2015 levels. To hit that target, the bill authorizes $650 million every year, from 2026 through 2035, for a new competitive grant program run by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The Kitchen Sink of Grants: What Gets Funded?

This isn't a single-purpose program; the EPA is authorized to award three main types of grants to governments (State, local, Tribal) and non-profits. First, there are Planning and Study Grants, which allow cities and counties to figure out exactly how much food waste they are generating and develop strategies to prevent it. Second, Data Collection Grants fund the tracking and public reporting of food waste numbers, which is crucial because you can't manage what you don't measure. Finally, the Food Waste Reduction Project Grants are where the real action happens. These funds can pay for things like technical assistance, implementing policies that charge businesses more for throwing food in the regular trash (to encourage reduction), or even setting up restrictions on sending food waste to landfills.

For a small business owner, especially those in the food service industry, this could mean access to local programs that help them manage their waste more efficiently, potentially lowering their disposal costs down the road. For the average person, it means fewer trucks hauling rotting food to landfills, which are major sources of methane—a powerful greenhouse gas.

Who Gets to Play and Why It Matters

One interesting wrinkle is who can apply for what. Non-profit organizations—the food banks, community composters, and environmental groups—are eligible for the big Project Grants, but they are explicitly excluded from the initial Planning and Data Collection Grants. This means local governments are the ones tasked with the initial assessment and number-crunching, which might slow down smaller, agile non-profits from getting their hands on the early study money. When a non-profit does apply for a project grant, they need a letter of support from the local government or a partner non-profit, adding another layer of bureaucracy.

Crucially, the EPA is directed to prioritize projects that benefit communities of color, low-income communities, or Tribal communities that are disproportionately affected by health or environmental harms. This is a direct nod to environmental justice, ensuring that the benefits of reduced waste and cleaner air are steered toward those who need it most.

The Anaerobic Digestion Rulebook

For projects involving anaerobic digestion—a process where food waste is broken down without oxygen to create energy and fertilizer—there are some specific technical rules designed to keep things safe and sustainable. The bill mandates that the resulting material must be recycled as a soil amendment and that its use cannot create an environmental hazard. More specifically, these projects are limited to using no more than 20% animal waste in their feedstock. The remaining 80% must be "source-separated organics," meaning the food scraps were cleanly separated from other trash by the person who threw them out. This rule is designed to ensure the resulting fertilizer is clean and safe for soil, but it could pose a challenge for existing facilities that rely heavily on mixed food waste or large amounts of manure.

In short, this bill puts serious federal money behind a serious environmental goal. It gives local entities the tools—and the cash—to figure out their food waste problem and start fixing it. While there’s a lot of administrative power given to the EPA Administrator to decide what counts as a reduction activity, the overall framework is solid: measure the problem, incentivize solutions, and prioritize communities that have historically borne the brunt of environmental neglect.