By composting, you help lower greenhouse gas emissions, ease pressure on our waste management systems, and create nutrient-rich soil & renewable energy.
In October New York City expanded its residential curbside composting program to Manhattan, Staten Island, and The Bronx, making it more accessible for all residents. The program includes free weekly pickups of organic waste (food scraps, yard waste, etc.) by the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) that coincide with a building’s recycling pick up day.
The location of the shared brown compost bin has been predetermined during a site walk through with the Rudin Sustainability Team and WATS. The collection location that was selected is easily accessible to drop off your compost. In most cases, the location of the brown bin is in a basement area that is well-ventilated and easy for the on-site team to keep an eye on to replace when full and clean when necessary. It is ok to have this location be outside.
Yes, with the roll out of organics collection to the entire city, organics collection is now mandatory for all New York City residents. This includes food scrap waste and yard waste. Your building is required to keep a compost collection bin in a common area to aid in facilitating the collection of organics.
Organics collected on Staten Island are processed at the city’s Staten Island Compost Facility. Organics collected in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and parts of Queens are anaerobically co-digested at the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. Anaerobic co-digestion is the process of converting food scraps and yard waste into renewable energy (biogas).
Diverting organic waste sent to landfills to use as a resource is an environmental benefit to our city. The compost created on Staten Island is then used by local landscaping companies as well as given back to the community at large at compost give back events hosted by DSNY.
Composting can drastically reduce the amount of organic waste sent to landfills, where it produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The process takes all the valuable nutrients in your food scraps (think banana peels and onion skins) and brings them back to the earth, supporting soil health, which leads to stronger plant growth and reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers, which can harm ecosystems. When used to enrich local green spaces, compost also helps prevent flooding from storms!
Compostable serviceware is not accepted in the residential organics stream because, unfortunately, not all items labeled compostable are as they seem. Studies have shown that many of these items contain harmful forever chemicals like PFAS and PFOS. Lack of regulation with these items makes them hard to process. Ideally, with the creation of certifying authorities such as BPI (Biodegradable Products Institute) and CMA (Compostable Manufacturing Alliance) there is some hope that these products will be further regulated and not create larger issues in our organics stream in the near future! For now, it’s best to reduce use of these single use items as much as possible!
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Once a week collection is currently the best practice for DSNY as they offer this service across every borough in NYC. As the compost program gains traction, collection frequency may shift.