Report: The State of Food Waste Depackaging Regulations
Depackaging is the mechanical process of separating food waste from its surrounding packaging materials like plastic, metal, or glass. Installation of depackaging infrastructure is scaling faster than creation of regulations that govern this type of solid waste processing practice. In October 2025, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) commissioned BioCycle to research the regulatory landscape in 24 states for mechanical food waste depackaging. Across the 24 states surveyed for this research, regulation of depackaging facilities and the compost and digestate produced from the depacked food waste is a patchwork — with some states writing dedicated rules, most fitting depackaging into existing permit categories never designed for it, and several treating the practice as exempt from solid waste oversight altogether.
The State of Food Waste Depackaging Regulations in the U.S., captures the findings of BioCycle’s research. Findings that define this moment include:
- The biggest regulatory bottleneck is the absence of a standardized measurement protocol for microplastics in food waste slurries, digestate, and compost.
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Mechanical food waste depackaging is here to stay. The question is not whether it should exist but under what conditions — and with what guardrails.
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Large-scale, stand-alone food waste depackagers and digesters with depackaging services are operating in regulatory vacuums in most states.
- Merchant depackaging services are reshaping the food waste market in ways that can limit availability of source separated streams for composting.
Read the full report.