By Daniel Katzive
The Department of Sanitation’s Smart Composting Bin program seems to be catching on with Upper West Siders. Indeed, with summer over and the neighborhood filling up again as schools resume and holidays conclude, demand for the program appears to be outstripping capacity — or at least that was the case this past weekend.
A check of the DSNY’s NYC Smart Compost app on Sunday morning found nearly all of the bins north of West 66th Street full or nearly full. On West 70th, a couple of residents appeared to have resorted to leaving their compost bags on the sidewalk or on top of the bin itself, which was full and not accepting new deposits. The bins were emptied overnight and were open for business again by Monday morning.
According to DSNY Press Secretary Vincent Gragnani, the bins are emptied six days a week, but were full on Sunday. “This is indeed a sign that many residents are using these Smart Composting Bins,” he told WSR in response to an email. “The Department is always evaluating usage of the bins,” he wrote, “and we look forward to rolling out curbside composting collection in Manhattan next October.”
The department does not want residents to leave compost bags on the sidewalk outside of full bins and asks that residents check the status of their bin before leaving home with compost. “This is part of the point of the app,” said Gragnani.
As reported by WSR at the time, the DSNY introduced the Smart Bins in Morningside Heights in April and on the Upper West Side in June. Residents living in participating buildings can also continue to use their buildings’ curbside bins, and various Greenmarkets around the neighborhood continue to accept compost at certain times.
Compost collected on the West Side is primarily brought to the Newtown Creek water treatment plant in Brooklyn where it is fed to giant digesters. The material breaks down into solids which can be made into a fertilizer product and methane gas, which is now fed into the natural gas utility grid.
The composting program is designed to reduce the amount of organic material that sits in trash bags on the street awaiting collection and limit the amount of waste that must be transported to distant landfills where it would release methane as it decayed. Mandatory curbside composting is set to arrive on the Upper West Side in about a year.
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I think the smartest thing the city did was making it so that people couldn’t throw trash in them (need a code/etc to open them) Every other recycling bin has all kinds of garbage in them.
I love these bins! It’s been easy for me to get into the habit of dropping off while doing another errand since there are so many of them conveniently located. I go usually about twice a week and as a result our regular garbage only needs to be taken out once a week. I’m encouraging everyone to get on the compost train!
So glad to hear the Smart Composting Bins are catching on with UWS residents. They’re very well designed and it’s a praiseworthy DSNY program. Thanks to Daniel Katzive for his great ongoing coverage!
(I wish people wouldn’t leave deposits on the sidewalk or on top of the bin when a bin is temporarily full; the bins are all over the neighborhood, and serious efforts are underway to control the rat population!)
Dear WSR
I left a comment about
1) the city needing to do more to NOT flare methane gas at Newtown Creek with information from National Grid’s OWN WEBSITE
2) Encouraging people to get their buildings to sign up for curbside composting
and that comment was not deemed fit for publication. What gives???
I would have been thrilled with these a couple of years ago. But aren’t all buildings required to compost starting next year? If I’m right about this seems like a lot of money to spend for what will only be a short term use.
Excellent point.
Of course you are right in principle but I wonder what will happen in fact. I’m interested to see how “compost next year” rolls out. Our (huge) rental building is…a long way from composting (and no I haven’t started a campaign, so yes I’m part of the inertia problem.) I expect some delays and postponements. In the meantime, love the bins and the app. If they get people more in the habit and the pickups work, I’m all for it. Even if it is just a few years. Even if Newtown Creek produces methane for heating. Far from ideal, but one good step away from landfill and rats and sea dumping. One step in the direction of separating and collecting compost. Many campaigns in a multi-front war; can’t let the perfect get in the way of the good. Sigh. Can’t even think about the larger environmental picture.
“Compost collected on the West Side is primarily brought to the Newtown Creek water treatment plant in Queens where it is fed to giant digesters. The material breaks down into solids which can be made into a fertilizer product and methane gas, which is now fed into the natural gas utility grid.”
So you can just wash it down the sink, right? Same thing basically. (And the Newtown Creek plant is in Brooklyn)
Thank you for the comment, you are correct—the plant is on the Brooklyn side of the Newtown Creek and we have updated the article accordingly. On the second point, I agree in terms of the final destination of the product, but putting a lot of organic waste into the sewage system, even if it could be liquified sufficiently to get out of your building, might tax the pipes and lead to additional overflows during wet weather so perhaps not optimal.
To facilitate expanded use of the compost bins, WSR could tell readers what can and can not be deposited in them. Or publish a link to this info.
The info was provided in an earlier WSR article: https://www.westsiderag.com/2023/06/27/smart-composting-bins-arrive-on-the-uws
And the NYC Smart Compost app includes a “Composting FAQ” section. The following items are accepted:
Food Scraps (fruit, vegetables, meat, bones, dairy, prepared foods)
Food-Soiled Paper (napkins, towels, tea bags, plates, coffee filters)
Plant Waste (flower, plants).
“Use of bags is encouraged to minimize mess. Paper, plastic, and compostable bags are all allowed.”
These are the best–I no longer have to go from my apt on 91st and Broadway to the bins behind Target or try to slip my compost into a neighboring building’s can. My small building doesn’t want to get one of the smaller bins (not much more room in our garbage area), so these are a great help. They were mostly full that weekend so I had to locate an almost full one on CPW, but all in all, it’s a great program
Several times the app told me it was “nearly full,” and when I opened the bin, there was still a lot of space in it, so it seems that it may be over sensitive when it comes to that judgment. Overall, the bins are functioning quite well and the summer was a great time to start doing this. No more smelly garbage in my apartment. And I make use of all the plastic bags. I get while shopping by using them for compost, which I store in the freezer until I’m ready to bring it to the bin.
What about all the plastic bags used to fill up the compost bin?
It’s best to avoid bringing compost on Sundays because that’s the one day they don’t pick up, and the bins are almost always full.
However the news is not all good. Many of the bins do not open if you have an Android phone with the Android app. Out of the last six times I’ve used it only twice it’s open for me. While other users of the app who have the iPhone version mentioned that they never have a problem. I’ve left a message with 311 and the other times I’ve had to rely on being lucky if somebody opened the bin for me or I’ve had to throw things in the trash because I was on my way to work and could not find another way to handle it. Other than that I think it’s a wonderful idea and I didn’t know that next year it’s going to be mandatory.
Please please please install these on every corner. Our building has done the curbside composting for more than 1.5 years and it is largely a disaster. The pickup rate is less than 60%. When we contact DSNY they tell us to leave the compost bin on the curb until they can make a special return visit. In the meantime random passersby fill the bin with all kinds of junk. We would be much better off walking the compost to the corner orange bin than having to monitor the curbside pickup.
Foolish. These grafitti magnets cost @$10k each plus cost of emptying and maintaining then trucking through the city to BK. Installing hundreds of garbage disposals for free in apt kitchens would be way better for the environment and improve NYers houses to the standards of the rest of America. Also when there is a serious budget deficit they will be locked, broken and not repaired.
I know, in heavy rains the sewage plants are overwhelmed and it spills into the waters but so what – it’s organic waste. Fish food.