By Iya Bakare

Illinois businesses, schools and other organizations now have better options to dispose of their food scraps, thanks to recent state legislation.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn recently signed SB99 into law, which allows food waste to be commercially composted in the state and sold all over the country. Currently, Illinois business owners have the option to compost locally, but cannot transport the product to another location or sell it.

This law also gives them the capability to separate their food scraps from garbage to be composted separately. The law goes into effect in January. Illinois is one of few midwestern states that did not practice this composting method, unlike its neighbors, including Indiana and Iowa.

Kay McKeen, founder and executive director of SCARCE (School & Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education), says this form of composting will benefit both the local environment and the economy. "This bill will benefit farmers, haulers, businesses, and is good for the soil, our water and for the environment," comments McKeen. "There are bills out there that are good for everyone and this is one of them."

SCARCE is a non-profit organization that educates the public about the conservation of natural resources and the reduction of waste in the environment. McKeen says her organization introduced this idea to state legislators five years ago. She notes several legislators worked hard for the bill's passage, including Rep. Sandra Pihos, Sen. Heather Steans, and Sen. Pamela Althoff.

Although Illinois residents must continue to follow U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) regulations and retrieve permits, the new legislation allows smaller composters to get started, says Paul Walker, Ph.D., professor of animal science at Illinois State University in Normal, Ill. Walker, a composting expert, was involved in roundtable discussions with state legislators to facilitate passage of the bill.

Local businesses and other facilities such as grocery stores, restaurants, schools, and assisted living homes can combine their efforts to compost their food waste. "This legislation really encourages composting for a variety of people, but it doesn't provide a loophole for EPA regulations to be followed -- you can't circumvent the law," says Walker.

One of the setbacks of commercial composting in Illinois involved the definition of food waste in the state. "Food waste in Illinois was defined as garbage and that made it difficult for composting," adds Walker. "We had to detach it from garbage and define food waste as 'food waste'."

The new law excludes food scraps from the definition of garbage, which will speed up the process and reduce the cost of obtaining permits, says Dan Rosenthal, president of Chicago Composts LLC and founder of Green Chicago Restaurant Co-op.

"We are excited about the prospect of bringing a large scale composting facility to Chicago and hope to be able to make an announcement to that effect in the next 60 days," says Rosenthal.