Recycling has long been touted as an easy way to cut down on waste and to create a more sustainable city. In practice, about 18% of trash from homes in NYC is diverted to recycling, according to NYC’s Department of Sanitation (DSNY), and it is likely that a much smaller portion is actually recycled. In 2022, Greenpeace published a report noting that even with the “chasing arrows” label, most types of plastic are not actually recyclable, with only about 5-6% of plastic waste in the U.S. being recycled in 2021. But New York City’s representatives finally recognize another low hanging fruit in the quest to curb landfill use—compost.
A third of trash collected by DSNY is compostable—from carrot tops and apple cores, to eggshells and soiled paper towels. When added to landfills with the rest of our garbage, these organic materials rot, emitting methane, a harmful greenhouse gas. But it does not have to be this way. When organic materials are properly sorted out and composted, they instead break down into a soil amendment or mulch that can be used to propagate healthy gardens.
Veto proof
On April 28, 2022, City Council Member Shahana Hanif introduced a piece of legislation that will mandate curbside composting. Last month, on June 8, the legislation was finally approved in its current form by the City Council. The bill will “require the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) to create a citywide curbside organics program for residential buildings.” It will also require DSNY to create outreach and education materials to teach residents how to properly separate materials.
The bill is now in review by Mayor Adams, but even without his signature, the Council will almost certainly pass the bill into law considering its widespread support during the initial vote. The program is almost identical to the one proposed by Mayor Adams himself, but mandatory. DSNY already provides the service throughout Queens, and will do the same for all of Brooklyn by this October. It will continue to expand to the Bronx and Staten Island by March 2024, and throughout Manhattan that fall. The program is straightforward and makes it simple for all residents to compost their organic waste. Residents do not even need to sign up; instead, each address will receive a brown bin (similar to the blue recycling bins provided by DSNY) and the bins will be emptied each recycling day.
New York City is not unique in its ongoing mission to compost more. South Korea is the poster child of composting done right. In 2005, the country banned food scraps from landfills, instead turning them into fertilizer, animal feed, and even fuel. In the United States, some cities are also making headway in the war against methane. In January, Los Angeles launched its own mandatory curbside composting program. Meanwhile, Seattle has required households with 1-4 units to compost food and yard waste since 2012. Even private companies have seen potential in food scraps. Businesses have created sleek, personal composting machines, with names like “Lomi” or “Mill”. Customers spend hundreds of dollars in return for feeling good about reducing their waste (and not having to collect or transport their food scraps).
While the proposed law is an exciting opportunity for the city to curb its carbon footprint, it is not the first time the city has considered new approaches to composting. Earlier this year, DSNY began a pilot program that placed “Smart Bins” in neighborhoods across the city. The orange bins look much like other public trash bins, with a mouth that opens with a handle or by stepping down on a pedal near the bottom, except they instead collect food scraps that are “composted to beautify green spaces across NYC.” While the bins were a step in the right direction, many of them require an app to access and those that do not require an app, have been placed sparingly throughout the city. DSNY also recommends bagging the compost to reduce mess (even non-compostable bags are acceptable), which keeps the bins clean but adds extra trash to the process.
Dedicated NYC composters will be familiar with other local opportunities to get rid of food scraps the eco-friendly way. GrowNYC, the environmental nonprofit responsible for running many of the city’s farmers markets, operates residential Food Scrap Drop-off sites and partners with community composting facilities. Each Sunday, locals can drop their food scraps off at the Carroll Gardens Greenmarket between 8am and 12pm. Other nonprofits do similar work.
In Red Hook, Red Hook Farms operates its own drop off sites. They accept food scraps any time. Just drop them off in the brown bins by the Columbia/Sigourney gate (the one closest to BASIS school) or the Beard/Otsego gate (the one closest to Ikea).
While this new legislation will no doubt push the city to reduce its use of landfills, some questions remain. NYCHA residents, who make up approximately 6% of the city’s populations, will not be included in the mandate, as the properties are under federal jurisdiction. Another obstacle will be for the city to ramp up its composting capacity. The city will need to create more facilities to manage the increased intake of organic materials. Finally, while residents will be required to change their habits, the legislation fails to address businesses. Restaurants have the potential to hugely reduce waste by composting scraps and leftovers, yet only food service establishments that “occupy a floor area of at least 7,000 square feet” are required to separate their organic waste. In a city with many tiny restaurants, more universal requirements would likely have a sizable impact.
It is easy to imagine NYC residents in 2100, horrified to imagine that at the turn of the last century, residents threw food scraps in with the rest of their trash, sending it to landfills where it would rot and emit gases that were poisoning the planet. It is even more easy to imagine NYC residents in 2025, grumbling about the effort necessary to take out a compost bin in addition to their recycling bin each week, and the city, somehow bungling pick up so that food scraps are left for the rats to feast upon. The City Council has done its part to move New York towards a more sustainable future—now it is up to DSNY and residents to do our parts.
