Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-Calif.) reintroduced the Zero Food Waste Act in December, legislation that would create a new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant program to reduce food waste nationwide. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) reintroduced companion legislation in the U.S. Senate. “Families are stretching every dollar right now, yet enormous amounts of perfectly good food are still being thrown away instead of reaching people who need it,” said Pingree, co-founder of the Bipartisan Food Recovery Caucus. “The Zero Food Waste Act aims to fix that disconnect. Our bill tackles hunger and rising food costs head-on by helping communities recover surplus food, expand local nutrition programs, and build systems that make better use of the resources we already have.”

The Zero Food Waste Act’s proposed EPA-administered program would provide three types of grants to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, and nonprofits. Planning grants could be used to investigate the kinds of food waste mitigation projects or policies that would be most impactful within a given community. Measurement grants could be used to better understand the amount of food waste generated in the state or community. Reduction grants could fund an assortment of different types of projects, such as food waste prevention. Recycling projects could reuse food waste as a feedstock for other non-food products, such as composting. Rescuing projects would be able to redirect surplus food to places like food shelters. Upcycling projects could make new food from ingredients that would otherwise go to landfills.