The Business Food Waste Mitigation Grant Program is designed to reduce business-generated food waste in New York State.  The program will divert food waste from landfill and combustion facilities thereby advancing a key strategy from NY’s Climate Action Council’s Scoping Plan. Food waste makes up 18% of the total municipal solid waste in New York. Reducing the disposal of food waste is key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Successful business food waste mitigation projects are those that will expand food waste recycling infrastructure in the State to reduce commercially generated food waste sent to landfill and combustion facilities. The program provides grants to cover costs of equipment purchased for the purpose of building new, or expanding existing, organics recycling facilities to accept food waste from businesses and expanding fleet services to collect commercial food waste destined for recycling.

The program is a $2 million initiative administered by Empire State Development and focuses on reducing business-generated food waste sent to landfill through capital equipment grants awarded to municipalities and not-for-profit organizations applying on behalf of themselves or a New York State Business. 

Grants will be awarded competitively and will range from $50,000 - $750,000.  Funds can be used for machinery and equipment related to mitigating commercial food waste. Ultimately, the program seeks to expand the State’s organics recycling infrastructure so facilities can collect and process food waste from large businesses such as restaurants and grocery stores, resulting in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Eligible Entities: New York State municipalities and non-profit / not-for-profit organizations undertaking a food waste mitigation project. 

OR 

New York State municipalities and non-profit / not-for-profit organizations may apply on behalf of a New York State-based business undertaking a food waste mitigation project.  In this scenario, the New York State business would be considered a co-implementor. 

Eligible Projects include the purchase of machinery and equipment for the purpose of collecting, processing, and recycling food waste from businesses, and the distribution of byproduct(s) such as compost.  

Examples of eligible equipment include: 

• processing equipment (e.g. compactor, dehydrator, depackager, windrow turner, grinder);
• management equipment (e.g. forklift); and
• transportation equipment (e.g. trucks).

Click here for frequently asked questions

How to Apply

The application will launch Summer 2026. If you would like to be notified when the application is live, please email [email protected] with a request to have your contact information added to our mailing list. 

If you have questions, email [email protected]. Procurement policies prohibit direct email responses, however, your question and respective answer will be included in our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) updated as needed.