New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) Commissioner Jessica Tisch today announcement.
They annoounced the completion of the roll-out of automatic guaranteed, free, simple, weekly collection of compostable material to every New Yorker across the five boroughs. When trucks left DSNY garages serving the Bronx, Staten Island, and Manhattan just after 5:00 AM today, they were making good on a promise that the past administration had made for over a decade. That promise was long derided as impossible, but that Mayor Adams committed to making it a reality in his 2023 State of the City address. This program, which began in Queens in the fall of 2022 and expanded to Brooklyn in the fall of 2023, is now permanent and offered citywide — something achieved with a focus on sustainability, cleanliness, equity, and efficiency.
“It’s simple: when food scraps end up in black bags on the street, they become rat food or methane emissions. said Mayor Adams. “Starting today, curbside composting is free and pain-free on every block and in every borough — something prior administrations have tried, but we got it done. I’m grateful to Commissioner Tisch and the dedicated sanitation workers who work day-in, day-out to make this program possible and keep our streets clean for New Yorkers.”
“We are waging a war against climate change. Our weapons are your banana peels, rotten tomatoes, and stale bread,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi. “Now, in all five boroughs, our easy-to-use curbside organics collection program will prevent these scraps from being shipped to emissions producing landfills, and instead turn them into compost and renewable energy.”
“Curbside composting programs have existed in the city for over a decade, but none have ever served more than 40 percent of New Yorkers — until now,” said DSNY Commissioner Tisch. “This administration has achieved the long-standing goal of bringing composting to every corner of the five boroughs, not as a niche program, but as a free, universal, easy-to-use service — one that will divert record amounts of material from landfills. We’re protecting the environment, fighting rats, and bringing equity to the city at large.”
While curbside composting programs have existed in New York City for the last decade, none have ever served more than approximately 40 percent of the city. Those composting programs had been plagued by stops and starts and complicated rules. This program’s model — no sign-up required, , fewer restrictions on material and on type of bin — is a model that can work for all New Yorkers. Every New Yorker can now simply take anything from their kitchen or their garden — all food scraps, yard waste, and food-soiled paper — and set it out for collection in either a DSNY brown bin or their own labeled, lidded bin of 55 gallons or less. In addition, they may choose to line the bin with a clear bag or not, based entirely on their personal preference. This material is collected on the same day that residents already set out their metal, glass, plastic, and paper recycling.
Since their initial launch in New York City’s easy-to-use composting programs have proven to be highly effective. The Fiscal Year 2024 Mayor’s Management Report showed a 65 percent increase in compostable material diverted from landfills over the prior two years — a staggering total of 260 million pounds. The overall diversion rate — the total amount of material kept out of landfills and either processed into compost or waste-to-energy facilities — has increased for the last three consecutive years.
Curbside service is only one part of the wraparound suite of composting services offered by DSNY. New York City is now home to approximately 400 Smart Composting Bins — 24-hour drop-off sites where New Yorkers can bring anything from their kitchen and anything from their garden to be put to beneficial reuse. New Yorkers opened Smart Composting Bins over 1 million times this past fiscal year — a 300 percent increase from the previous year. Earlier this year, Mayor Adams fulfilled a campaign promise by bringing DSNY collection of compostable material to every single New York City public school, helping to train the next generation of composters.
Material collected through these programs is turned into either renewable energy to heat homes or into compost sold to landscapers and given away free to New Yorkers for use in their yards and gardens. Without these programs, these materials would all go into a landfill, becoming nothing but harmful greenhouse gasses. The DSNY Staten Island Compost Facility has produced approximately 40 million pounds of finished compost per year for the last decade. Under the Adams administration, that facility recently completed a major expansion, expanding its capacity to process food waste by 2,000 percent ahead of today’s announcement.
Per local law passed by the City Council, participation in this program becomes mandatory in each borough when service starts, but fines cannot be written until April 2025. The fine structure is the same as the existing requirements for the separation of metal, glass, plastic, and paper recyclables from trash, which starts at $25 for properties with one to eight residential units and $100 for properties with nine or more residential units. This is the exact same separation requirement New Yorkers already know from recycling programs, now extended to the one-third of residential waste that is compostable.
Ahead of the mandate going into effect, DSNY is engaged in a major outreach effort, sending mailings to all covered residents, meeting with community boards and civic associations, and knocking on the doors of all buildings with fewer than 10 residential units in the Bronx, Staten Island, and Manhattan. A similarly robust outreach effort previously proved effective in Queens and Brooklyn.
While this program is for residential waste only, New York City’s commercial waste zone program will also increase commercial diversion of compostable material. Under this program, businesses will pay their private waste carter less to remove compostable material than they do to remove trash, creating a meaningful financial incentive to keep commercial compostable material out of landfills.
“A citywide curbside organics collection program is vital to creating a true circular economy in New York City,” said New York City Chief Climate Officer and New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Rohit T. Aggarwala. “Instead of simply discarding our organic waste, we are recovering energy and nutrients from this material at facilities like DEP’s Newtown Creek Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility and DSNY’s Staten Island Compost Facility. This sustainable cycle of reuse creates valuable products, including compost and renewable energy, like biogas, which can be used to heat homes. This process has proven to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including methane. Through the end of June 2024, DEP processed approximately 330,000 wet tons of food scraps at Newtown Creek that would have otherwise ended up in a landfill and emitted harmful greenhouse gases. I want to thank Mayor Adams and DSNY Commissioner Tisch for their commitment to making curbside organics collection available to all New Yorkers.”
“This roll out is the city achieving another one of our PlaNYC goals, and an important step towards improving our environment,” said Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice Executive Director Elijah Hutchinson. “This diversion will reduce the amount of solid waste generated within the city, the majority of which is currently processed and transferred in a handful of over-burdened environmental justice communities.”
“Today we have reached our goal of implementing curbside composting citywide, allowing us to divert from landfills and compost all 1 million tons of organic household waste New York City produces annually,” said New York State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar. “This is a critical component for a sustainable future: compostable waste accounts for 34 percent of our residential waste, and 20 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions. With curbside composting now in all five boroughs, we will reach our goal of reducing food-based emissions 33 percent by 2030. Diverting organic waste will also deprive the rodent population of food, bringing us closer to victory in the War on Rats. Together, we will forge a path to a sustainable, zero waste, and rat-free future.”
“Curbside composting is officially available all over New York City. This is a pivotal step forward in the fight against climate change and also towards the future of our city,” said New York City Councilmember Shaun Abreu. “The more people participate, the less money we’ll waste sending food scraps to rot in landfills as far as South Carolina and Ohio. Best of all, we can put more compost right back into our community gardens, parks, and tree beds to protect and grow our green spaces.”
Photo credit: HWM.
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