Diverting food waste from landfills is crucial to reduce emissions and meet Paris Agreement targets. Between 2014 and 2024, nine US states banned commercial waste generators—such as grocery chains—from landfilling food waste, expecting a 10 to 15% waste reduction. However, no evaluation of these bans exists. We compile a comprehensive waste dataset covering 36 US states between 1996 and 2019 to evaluate the first five implemented state-level bans. Contrary to policy-makers’ expectations, we can reject aggregate waste reductions higher than 3.2%, and we cannot reject a zero-null aggregate effect. Moreover, we cannot reject a zero-null effect for any other state except Massachusetts, which gradually achieved a 13.2% reduction. Our findings reveal the need to reassess food waste bans using Massachusetts as a benchmark for success.

中文翻译：

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在美国最早实施食物垃圾禁令的五个州中，仅马萨诸塞州就减少了垃圾填埋场的垃圾


将食物垃圾从垃圾填埋场转移出来对于减少排放和实现《巴黎协定》目标至关重要。2014 年至 2024 年期间，美国有 9 个州禁止商业垃圾产生者（如杂货连锁店）填埋食物垃圾，预计可减少 10% 至 15% 的垃圾。但是，不存在对这些禁令的评估。我们编制了一个全面的废物数据集，涵盖 1996 年至 2019 年间美国 36 个州，以评估前 5 个州实施的州级禁令。与政策制定者的期望相反，我们可以拒绝高于 3.2% 的总废弃物减少量，也不能拒绝零零总量效应。此外，我们不能拒绝对除马萨诸塞州以外的任何其他州的零零效应，马萨诸塞州逐渐实现了 13.2% 的减排。我们的研究结果表明，有必要以马萨诸塞州作为成功的基准来重新评估食物浪费禁令。