How Food Waste Investments Could Benefit Illinois Economy
NRDC study suggests investments in food loss and waste can be an economic driver.
September 5, 2026
Every year, Illinois discards approximately 2.6 million tons of food. That accounts for roughly 20 percent of material entering Illinois landfills, where it decomposes anaerobically and generates methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas. At the same time, significant amounts of edible food could be recovered and redirected to people experiencing food insecurity. What remains after food rescue does not need to become waste, either. Food scraps can be transformed into animal feed, compost, soil amendments, and other valuable resources.
Similar to the Forum’s Potencial de impacto económico y caracterización de los residuos sólidos municipales en Michigan para 2024, the State of Illinois was the center of a 2026 study commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council that examined the potential economic impacts of three food waste diversion policy scenarios for Illinois. The analysis modeled a gradual, seven-year implementation period and drew on research and experience from other states that have adopted organic waste diversion policies.
The findings point out that a comprehensive food waste diversion policy – a plan that covers all generators including businesses, institutions, and households across Illinois – creates a $3.8 billion opportunity.
Comprehensive and Exclusion Strategies
Beyond the $3.8 billion, the policy could support:
- 14,000 jobs across Illinois,
- $172 million in cumulative state and local tax revenue,
- 2.2 million tons of food waste diverted from landfills annually,
- 9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions avoided over 10 years.
This comprehensive strategy would extend beyond companies directly responsible for collecting and processing food waste. Increased demand for food waste collection would support hauling companies and their employees. Those companies would purchase vehicles, equipment, fuel (if not purchasing EVs), maintenance services, and other supplies. Organic waste processors would require improvements in facilities, technology, labor, and transportation. Employees receiving wages would then spend earnings throughout their communities, creating an economic boon beyond the immediate recovery bonuses.
The study also looked into two other scenarios: geographic exclusion and a small-generator exclusion.
In a geographic exclusion scenario, the policy would primarily apply to generators located within 20 miles of existing food waste processing infrastructure. This is due to distance exemptions introducing extra regulatory and enforcement burdens that would support approximately 8,000 jobs across the state and only $2 billion in economic activity. The small-generator exclusion scenario similarly breaks down given that households generate nearly 36 percent of food waste in Illinois. This scenario would support fewer than 8,000 jobs and also generate only $2 billion in economic activity.
Food waste diversion cannot succeed without sufficient capacity to collect, transport, process, and beneficially reuse organic materials. Expanding that infrastructure requires investment, but the investment made is an additional economic driver. Illinois and Michigan both have the opportunity to use policy to create the market conditions needed for private investment and business growth, but state and local governments need to explore available funding mechanisms and economic development pathways through private-public partnership to capitalize on the opportunity.
Photo: Courtesy of FrugalGlutton.com via Flickr. Creative Commons license
