# What This Bill Does

This bill creates a tax credit that gives homeowners money back on their taxes if they buy food waste recycling equipment or pay for organic waste collection services. Essentially, the government is offering to help pay for the cost of keeping food scraps out of the trash.

Here's how it works in practice: If you buy a home food recycling appliance—a machine that breaks down food waste by drying and shrinking it—you can get back 30 percent of what you spent on it, up to $300. So if you buy a $1,000 food waste processor, you'd get $300 back on your taxes. Additionally, if you pay for a service to pick up your processed food waste or organic scraps for composting or other local processing, you can get back 30 percent of those service fees too, up to $120 per year. You can't claim both benefits for the same expense, and you can't deduct these costs twice—you either get the tax credit or a regular tax deduction, not both.

The credit only applies to people using these systems in their primary home (not vacation homes or rentals), and it's only available through the end of 2031. This means the program is temporary, giving people about six years to take advantage of it. The bill is designed to encourage households to reduce food waste going to landfills by making it more affordable to invest in the equipment and services needed to recycle food scraps locally instead.