Connecticut’s Food Waste Problem: Innovation, Anaerobic Digestion, and the Dormant Commerce Clause

Connecticut has a food waste problem. Much of its food waste ends up in landfills where it rots and produces methane gas that contributes to global warming. This Note examines Connecticut’s efforts to address its food waste problem through a waste flow control law, Public Act 13-285. With this law, Connecticut became the first state to pass legislation to reduce food waste through state-mandated diversion. This Note frames its discussion of Public Act 13-285 in terms of federal initiatives to cut food waste and the growing national consensus on the important role for anaerobic digestion in reducing food waste. This Note argues that in theabsence of a national food waste recycling ban, Public Act 13-285 provides an innovative solution that both reduces food waste and promotes Connecticut’s anaerobic digestion industry. Connecticut’s law, however, may be vulnerable to challenge under the Dormant Commerce Clause, which protects the belief that one state in its dealings with another may not place itself in a position of economic isolation. This Note further argues that the Dormant Commerce Clause should show deference to state experimentation on the issue of food waste reduction given the role states play as innovators and guardians of the environment