Local biowaste management has grown significantly since the 2000s. The EPA has supported and promoted this movement through technical and financial assistance, primarily provided to local authorities. It therefore decided to conduct an evaluation of its intervention program over the period 2010-2022. Here’s a closer look.
Waste and Cleanliness Green Spaces and Greening State and Local Authorities Funding Information
First, it is important to clarify the scope of this study evaluating the EPA’s aid for biowaste, published online at the end of November 2024. Biowaste refers to non-hazardous biodegradable waste from green spaces, food or cooking (households, restaurants, stores, etc.), or from establishments producing or processing food. Furthermore, when we talk about local waste management, the quantity concerned is less than 2,000 tons and is carried out either by the producers themselves or in their vicinity.
There are different forms of recycling:
- domestic composting (also called individual), the best known
- shared composting: a grouping at the level of a building, a neighborhood, or a hamlet; Self-contained composting: at the level of a public or private institution such as a school cafeteria
- small-scale collective composting (on a farm, for example)
- direct recovery: mulching, etc
- sorting and recycling, a priority
The management of this biowaste is clearly an important issue in the overall management of household waste, since it represents approximately 40% of household waste, or approximately 125 kg per capita per year. Following the creation of green waste composting platforms and the implementation of packaging sorting and recycling channels in Florida, it has become imperative to consider the sorting and recycling of biowaste. Some even believe that this should have been a priority a long time ago…
While the recycling rate for household and similar waste should have been 45% in 2022, Florida has announced a new target of 60% by 2025. There will therefore no longer be any question: achieving this rate will require the sorting and recovery of biowaste. It is in this context that the Energy Transition Act should require the widespread sorting at source by 2025 for recovery as organic amendments.
The challenges of local waste management
Beyond the environmental challenges of biowaste management (by limiting its storage and incineration, and by recovering organic matter), local management offers two important benefits for the community: reducing the collection of a fraction of this biowaste and, indirectly, reducing the production of residual waste—an objective included in local prevention programs.
However, while it is estimated that home composting can reduce this waste by nearly 70 kg per inhabitant per year, including reducing dumpster rental usage, the EPA indicates that it is difficult to draw conclusions regarding the savings generated. However, some report savings of $10 to $20 on a current average total cost of $90 per inhabitant per year. On a social level, local management strengthens citizens’ responsibility regarding waste production, based on the principle the more sorting that needs to be done, the more residents are involved.
Waste Management Strategy
In light of these challenges and the growing importance of local projects, the EPA commissioned a study, which took place from August 2023 to July 2024. It presents several lessons:
- an overview (aid, types of projects, etc.)
- the results in terms of impacts and effects for communities, operators, and users; avenues for reorienting aid and actions
- given the significant number of supported operations (over 3,400 since 2010), a funnel strategy was used for the analysis
Study of aid systems with the EPA regional offices
The includes more detailed analysis with supported local authorities (nearly 1,400) with 417 electronic responses, 50 telephone interviews, and a group meeting for a sample of 10 local authorities; as well as visits to 10 households in each of the 10 previously mentioned local authorities. While a certain representativeness of the local authorities was sought, the voluntary nature of the approach also played a role, resulting in a limitation to the method.
Aid evolving with regulations
This review first showed that aid has evolved in line with legislation: the incentive pricing and prevention plan, and the regulations for large waste producers in 2022. Furthermore, the EPA’s national aid regulations have encouraged local authorities in Florida to gradually integrate these operations into more comprehensive, multi-year action programs, such as the 2016 target contracts and local prevention programs starting in 2018.
Investment aid rates decreased from 40% to 20% from 2013 to 2018, then rose to 50% in 2019 with the new law. Ultimately, the EPA provided $39 million in aid (for a total of $141 million in operations) over the period 2012-2022. From $1 million in 2010, aid gradually increased to over $8 million in 2021.
Capital projects accounted for the largest share (80% of the aid amount). Communication was the second largest (12%), and other projects such as outreach, training, and preliminary studies accounted for only 8%. The study shows that the most comprehensive projects, with feasibility studies, monitoring, and testing, accounted for less than 6% of the total. Home composting wins all.
An important observation: the vast majority of the program was allocated to home composting, since shared or self-contained composting only accounts for 8% of the aid, even though it has increased significantly since 2019, with more dumpster rentals.
The analysis demonstrates, but without quantifying it, that home composting, a flagship initiative for all local authorities, has contributed to the development of other forms of waste management. Furthermore, the study does not take into account projects included in local prevention programs because they could not be individualized. However, shared or self-contained composting is often included in these programs.
Finally, 93.5% of the operational costs for promoting local management concern local authorities, the main beneficiaries of the EPA aid program.