The Zero Food Waste Coalition (ZFWC), in partnership with Coalition member Divert, and founding coalition member Harvard Law School Food Law & Policy Clinic, released a comprehensive Food Waste Legislative Tracker to advance opportunities to push food waste prevention and diversion laws across the country.

This interactive database provides an overview of wasted food prevention, food rescue, and food waste recycling bills in each state for stakeholders that are interested in engaging on these topics.

The legislative tracker, which will be updated regularly throughout the 2024 legislative cycle, includes:

• Insights into policies from all 50 states
• Issue areas including organic waste bans, organic waste by-product procurement, food recovery, and date labeling
• Summaries of bill content
• Status updates on each bill tracked

“Providing up-to-date information on bills that are working their way through state legislatures to tackle the issue of food waste is just one of the ways that the Zero Food Waste Coalition is providing tools to accelerate the momentum towards meeting our national goal of reducing food waste by 50% by 2030,” said Heather Latino, Clinical Instructor at the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic. “Resources like this support our Coalition members who are on the ground implementing solutions to food waste. They know first-hand what policy opportunities and barriers exist in their communities and can use the tracker to engage in their state’s legislative process to replicate or drive supportive policy solutions.”

The ZFWC, Divert, and Harvard teams hope increasing the accessibility of this information will help drive further advocacy efforts and engagement at the state level.

To learn more about or join the Zero Food Waste Coalition, please email zfwcoalition@gmail.com.

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Divert, Inc. is an impact technology company on a mission to Protect the Value of Food™. Founded in 2007, the company creates advanced technologies and sustainable infrastructure to eliminate wasted food, driving social and environmental impact. Divert provides an end-to-end solution that prevents waste by maximizing the freshness of food, recovers edible food to serve communities in need, and converts wasted food into renewable energy. The company works with over 6,600 customer locations across the U.S. to reduce wasted food and positively impact people and the environment. Its customer base spans across industries and includes five Fortune 100 companies. For more information on Divert, Inc., please visit www.divertinc.com.

The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC) serves partner organizations and communities by providing guidance on cutting-edge food system issues, while engaging law students in the practice of food law and policy. FLPC’s work focuses on increasing access to healthy foods, supporting sustainable production and regional food systems, promoting community-led food system change, and reducing waste of healthy, wholesome food. FLPC is committed to advancing a cross-sector, multi-disciplinary and inclusive approach to its work, building partnerships with academic institutions, government agencies, private sector actors, and civil society with expertise in public health, the environment, and the economy. For more information, visit chlpi.org/flpc and follow them on twitter at @HarvardFLPC.

The Zero Food Waste Coalition is a national effort to inform and influence U.S. food waste policy at the federal, state, and local levels in order to accelerate progress and build momentum by bringing together stakeholders from across the food system. The Coalition was launched by the Natural Resources Defense Council, World Wildlife Fund, ReFED, and FLPC in April 2023, formalizing a partnership that began in January 2020.

CONTACT:
Zero Food Waste Coalition, zfwcoalition@gmail.com