State Marks Implementation Of Food Waste Ban

Massachusetts is officially kicking off its commercial food waste ban with a special ceremony in Gardner.

State Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner David Cash and others are scheduled to appear at the Gardner Ale House on Monday for a tour of the restaurant's food waste recycling operation before the material is shipped to an animal feed operation in New Hampshire.

Under the first-in-the-nation ban, businesses that produce at least one ton of food waste a week must recycle or reuse that material instead of sending it to landfills or incinerators.

The materials must be re-purposed or donated to food banks, sent for composting or for animal-feed or utilized in anaerobic digestion facilities.