By Daniel Katzive
Upper West Siders may notice some new street furniture as they walk around this week. The Department of Sanitation (DSNY) has rolled out Smart Compost Bins to our neighborhood. The new bins are unlocked using an app and can be fed with food scraps, food soiled paper, and plant waste.
The DSNY launched the Smart Compost Bin program earlier this year and it has been rolling the bins out gradually in different neighborhoods across the city. West Side Rag wrote about the program in April, but at that time the bins had only reached Morningside Heights. The latest rollout has brought 20 bins to the Upper West Side, between West 59th Street and West 92nd Street. A DSNY spokesman told WSR that additional bins north of West 92nd Street could be added later this week.
The bins are locked in order to, hopefully, limit the amount of non-compostable material that gets introduced. To access the bins, neighborhood residents can download the DSNY’s NYC Smart Compost App. The app provides a map of available Smart Bins and can unlock a nearby bin using a BlueTooth connection from the phone. DSNY recommends bagging the compost that is deposited to reduce mess. Non-compostable plastic bags are acceptable.
The Smart Composting Bins can accommodate a wide range of organic material, including meat, bones, dairy, and prepared foods, as well as soiled paper and pizza boxes, but NOT pet waste. In contrast, most drop-off sites do not accept meat, bones, or dairy.
According to recent articles in the New York Times and New York Magazine’s Curbed, compost collected in Manhattan is currently brought to the Department of Environmental Protection’s Newtown Creek water treatment plant where it is fed to giant digesters. The compost breaks down into a solid material that can be made into a fertilizer product and methane gas, which is now being fed into the natural gas utility grid.
Residents who live in buildings participating in the DSNY’s voluntary curbside composting program can continue to dispose of organic material in the brown bins seen around the neighborhood. DSNY also accepts compost at various weekly Green Markets. Lastly, Hudson River Park, which runs along the river south of 59th Street, also has a composting program, with bins available the length of the park.
The smart bins are a precursor to the DSNY’s implementation of the mandatory curbside composting program, which has already started in Queens and will reach Manhattan in fall 2024.
“We know New Yorkers want to do the right thing,” wrote DSNY spokesman Vincent Gragnani in an email to West Side Rag. “We just have to make it easy for them.”
With additional reporting by Scott Etkin.
Do you dispose of your plastic bag in the bin as well?
Yes. DSNY says “use of bags is encouraged to minimize mess.”
On top of every bin for the buildings that do compost – it states, no plastic bag. We all know they are not biodegradable.
These are different bins, and they state that plastic bags are acceptable.
But doesn’t that mean compostable bags, and not plastic bags, which are most certainly not compostable? Bags for composting are widely available so I would recommend using those or a paper bag.
Actually no. Non compostable bags are acceptable. Not that I have any given the plastic bag ban…
Impossible to find street locations from the map! Goggle search comes up empty.
Photo show’s the food scraps wrapped in plastic bag. Which plastic bags are acceptable and where can one buy them?
The free app (NYC Compost) shows exact locations and availability, and has information about what is compostable, and what bags you can use.
Hi. If you download the DSNY’s NYC Smart Compost App you will see a map you can zoom in on. In terms of bags, DSNY says Plastic, Paper and compostable bags are all allowed. No special bag needed.
Map does not have street designations. Do you have a list of the exact locations?
Download the free app (NYC Compost) for exact locations and availability. You MUST have the app to unlock the bin.
If you download the “NYC Compost” app you can see the full map that shows where all the bins are. This is also the app you need to use to unlock the bins.
if you donwload the NYC Smart Compost app you can view the map
Hi. If you download the DSNY’s NYC Smart Compost App you will see a map you can zoom in on.
This is great news. We have composting in our building. If the DSNY was smart, they’d do a promotion for the compostable plastic bags (I bought some on Amazon — Glad makes them) which you can use to put all the waste in. They rolled out all those reusable orange bags a few years ago which I still have. They roll up neatly and can fit in your pocket or purse.
Download the FREE app (NYC Compost) to get exact locations nearest you. It will also inform you of availability (bin is full or not full). The app also includes a list of what’s compostable and what types of bags can be used. You MUST have the app to UNLOCK the bin.
WHY are we accepting yet more SIDEWALK FURNITURE?
Disabled folks, people with baby strollers and the blind MUST be considered FIRST. ..certainly above the needs of compost. WHY can we not have these boxes actually IN the STREET? Why should automobiles trump sidewalks?
Because I don’t want to get hit by a car ?
The compost boxes have a relatively small footprint and do not seem to be in places where they impede foot traffic, at least in Morningside Heights. I do think the many containers for various publications that no one seems to read pose a bigger problem of sidewalk clutter. These are also often battered and unsightly. I’ve noticed that they don’t seem to proliferate as much in other neighborhoods, for example the UES, and have wondered why there are so many in the UWS.
They could go in the street but we’d need DOT to build out an area to make it safe. Meanwhile these compost boxes take up no more space than a trash can or newspaper box, and less than a street tree. I saw the one on 77th St. The sidewalk is wide and the box is blocking no one.
why are non compostable bags acceptable? what’s the process behind that, hopefully that means a human is separating it, o6f not, this is the most epic waste of money & the epitome of incompetence.
My guess is that this is an example of “the perfect is the enemy of the good”. That is, it’s better to have more people composting and having to get a special bag will discourage many. Perhaps in a few years we can all. transition to compostable bags. In the meantime, this sounds like a good thing and not an “epic” failure.
This is SO fantastic! I’m never home on Sundays to take scraps to the farmer’s market (nor do I have a ton of room in my freezer to store scraps). This is a perfect solution, I’m really grateful.
I’m delighted to hear this! Many thanks to the West Side Rag for highlighting the program and providing key information. I promptly downloaded the NYC Smart Compost app and see that there are lots of bins in the neighborhood. Recently I decided to get serious about composting, did some online research on the whole bag issue, and invested in Bag to Earth leakproof paper bags, which are certified 100% compostable by the Biodegradable Products Institute and made from renewable resources (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08K495MW5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
I’m curious about the plastic bag thing also. Does that mean that even if you use a compostable bag they are going to open it and (hopefully) put it back in to be composted? Will regular plastic and paper bags be recycled? Do they prefer we use one type of bag over the others? When I first heard about this program, I assumed you’d dump the materials right in the bin without the bag. Very glad the city is doing this, in any case.
We’ve had them in Morningside Heights for a couple of months now. It’s such fun to open the bins using the app. There’s even a foot pedal to hold it open in case your hands are full of compost or your phone. A bonus is the nice neighbors I’ve met usually in the morning dropping off their compost. There are three locations one on Broadway 112th and two on Amsterdam 113th and 114th. 112th is very popular and fills up by late morning. 113th and 114th not so much. Late in the day I can usually find space in either one. 114th is on a crowded corner across from St. Lukes Morningside and should have been put on the opposite corner. The other two are fine and don’t clutter the street.
✅app downloaded
🗑️ bin located
🚮 drop off planned – thank you WSR (and NYC DoS)
Best news of the week! Routinely miss weekday market morning time, too often schlep 1/2 mile for longer weekend market drop off amidst other tasks, sometimes miss that and put bag in pail on balcony…can’t trash it any more b/c kid gave me compost bucket…but this is 2 blocks away and 24/7 we hope. Phew!
So disappointing to see this type of bin!
They don’t work for garbage how will they work for composting?
Teaching usually has to go into composting and non of that has happened to the regular public.
I also know that recycling doesn’t really happen even when you do it at home, in the end only a portion happens.
How exactly is the department set up to do this and where will it happen. Seriously 😐
This is somewhat better than throwing this stuff in the regular garbage, but it is not (at the moment at least) composting. You should still preferentially use the dropoffs at the greenmarket if you can – they turn food waste into actual compost.
https://www.curbed.com/2023/04/smart-bin-compost-journey.html
Hi. I believe based on reporting I did last year that material dropped off at the Green Markets in Manhattan is also sent to the Newtown Creek digesters. In Hudson River Park (south of 59th Street), the refuse is composted on site, at a location near the 30th Street Heliport. But even material fed to digesters is being broken down organically, and converted to a fertilizer product and methane which is piped into the utility network, reducing volumes which must be shipped out of town to landfill and our need to pipe in natural gas from out of state.
Used one this afternoon. Could not have been easier.
“Are plastic bags acceptable?” The reading comprehension skills of the average person is terrifying. It clearly states in the article NON COMPOSTABLE PLASTIC BAGS ARE ACCEPTABLE
I wonder how the economics shake out between the benefit from recycled methane helping to fuel the grid vs. the cost to install, maintain and provide service for all the bins (presumably via diesel trucks).
Surely it must be cheaper and better for the environment to throw my banana peels somewhere else?
DSNY uses de-bagging machines that sort film plastics from organics (the Tiger for example). Thus, non-compostable bags are acceptable at this time as they are sorted out and landfilled.