“New Yorkers spoke—and the City Council listened. With everything at stake, our city’s vibrant composting community stopped at nothing to fight back against the proposed mayoral budget cuts.
They showed up in droves at rallies and press conferences. They testified at every committee hearing. They called their district offices. They signed petitions, wrote letters, and approached their council members in the street to demand restorations. It all mattered.
Today, we are incredibly proud to announce that the Council will be restoring $6.245 million to community composting programs—where it always belonged—and creating a new, more sustainable path forward for our community composting coalition.
Today is impossible without the tireless engagement of all advocates, organizers, and composters—and the testimony of countless New Yorkers who saw the obvious: cutting community composting does nothing but destroy all the positive green habits our city has been asking us to practice. Thanks to the outpouring of calls to save community composting, this Council is not only reaffirming its commitment to local community-based climate solutions, it is growing the community composting infrastructure.
Under this budget agreement, more environmental justice groups will receive funding to process organics locally and provide outreach to gear up for the city’s curbside organics collection program; more schools will receive resources for organics recycling and education; dozens of green jobs will be created; and community composting will expand its presence across all five boroughs of the city. This is not a mere restoration—it is a reinvestment in the people that will make our Zero Waste goals a reality.
Community composting has come a long way. What began as community members reclaiming derelict neighborhood spaces in the 1970s has blossomed into a tight-knit band of grassroots organizations. But that founding ethos of community composting has always remained, and today it is stronger than ever. What others see as trash, we see as the key to a cleaner, more just city, a circular economy, and a greener planet. We look forward to working with the Sanitation Department so that the restored community composting program and the city’s new curbside organics collection program can be mutually supportive.”
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