A Biodegradable Upgradable for Recycling Food Waste
A year from now, all New York City residents will be required by law to separate organic waste from trash going to landfill. The City’s Department of Sanitation (DSNY) composting program in Brooklyn and Queens starts next month, Bronx and Staten Island residents begin composting in March, and composting for Manhattan residents completes the program in the fall of 2024. Separating leaf and yard waste becomes mandatory as the program launches in each borough, and the mandate to separate food scraps goes into effect citywide in Spring 2025.
Lower Manhattan already has more than a dozen compost bins for the public’s use. Most are DSNY-maintained, with supplemental programs provided by the Hudson River Park Trust (one bin at Pier 25) and the Battery Park City Authority (five throughout the neighborhood). Over the summer, the BPCA added two new bins to the public network—one outside 200 Rector Place and the other at the North End Avenue dog run. The addition of new drop-off points has been enabled by the BPCA’s acquisition of new composting equipment, which has expanded the Authority’s overall capacity to process organic waste.
Residents are encouraged to regularly drop off organic waste such as fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, and wilted flowers. “I just keep adding to a bag of scraps in my freezer and I bring it down when it gets too big,” said Carla Adams as she lifted the lid of the compost bin outside 75 Battery Place. In Battery Park City alone, more than 300,000 pounds of compost has been produced since 2019, including 50,000 pounds thus far in 2023.