By Scott Etkin
November 5 is a day that everyone has marked on their calendars this year, but there’s another important date for New Yorkers (including Upper West Siders) a month before that: October 6. That’s when the city’s Department of Sanitation (DSNY) begins collecting compost from all residential buildings in Manhattan, the final step in the citywide rollout of its curbside composting program.
“Curbside composting” refers to the collection of organic material – food scraps, food-soiled paper, leaves, and soil – separate from what’s traditionally collected in NYC: trash, and the recycling materials glass, plastic, metal, and paper. Starting October 6, DSNY will begin collecting compost once a week, on the same day it picks up recycling from buildings in the neighborhood.
No advance sign-up is needed, but buildings need to follow a few rules: Compost should be set out for collection in bins that have a secure lid, that hold 55 gallons or less, and that are lined with a clear plastic, paper, or compostable bag. “Owners of buildings with four units or more must provide a storage area and clearly labeled bins for the composting,” according to DSNY’s website.
Buildings can use their own bins or order a free one from DSNY. Decals are also available to download for free to label the bins.
According to a 2023 study by DSNY, one-third of what New Yorkers put in trash is material that could be composted. The goal of curbside composting is to stop this organic material from being sent to trash landfills, where it decomposes into methane, a harmful gas, and instead collect it for processing into “compost for parks and gardens, or into renewable energy and fertilizer,” a DSNY representative wrote in a message to West Side Rag.
Today, much of the organic material that’s collected is processed in huge digester eggs at the NYC Department of Environmental Protection’s Newtown Creek facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. There, it is converted into a mix of biosolids – which can then be used for fertilizer and ground cover – and biogas (mostly methane), that’s used as energy by National Grid, a utility company that serves New York and Massachusetts, and to heat the facility itself.
Besides the positive environmental impact of composting, the use of sealed bins to store organic material might also help reduce New York’s rat population. “Curbside composting is an important part of the city’s war on rats,” the sanitation department representative wrote to the Rag. “By removing food waste from black bags and putting it into sealed containers, we take rat food off our streets. And if rats can’t feed, they can’t breed.”
Curbside composting is already underway in Brooklyn and Queens. When Staten Island, the Bronx, and Manhattan also start receiving the service in October, it could be considered the biggest change to residential sanitation in NYC since 1989, when recycling became mandatory. So far, the program’s implementation in Brooklyn and Queens “has diverted near record numbers of food and yard waste from landfills – and we expect those numbers to rise as this program expands citywide,” wrote the sanitation representative.
Virtual Information Sessions
To learn more about curbside composting, DSNY is hosting virtual information sessions on:
- Thursday, September 12 at 6:00 p.m.
- Thursday, September 19 at 2:00 p.m.
- Thursday, September 26 at 4:00 p.m.
Virtual information specifically geared toward building managers, superintendents, board members, and owners:
- Thursday, September 12 at 2:00 p.m.
- Thursday, September 19 at 6:00 p.m.
- Thursday, September 26 at 2:00 p.m.
To watch a previously recorded information session, click – HERE.
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I am looking with major side-eye at my landlord, who I doubt complies willingly with this program, because he believes he’s above the law.
I saw a new brown bin behind my building this morning, but my question would be, how many tenants are actually going to comply with this? The majority of the tenants in my building still don’t recycle glass/plastic/paper, and the super has to separate everything. : (
Then he must be reported, and fined accordingly.
our building management just does not want to participate in this program. I have been trying to bring the bins ever since they are being offered. Now I have started composting in smart bins. My building is between broadway and Amsterdam avenue on 90th street. The other buildings have got the bins. but not mine.
Rat fink
Don’t tell people where you live, if using your real name.
Good! About time this comes to the City. It is a win-win. Less rats, more energy to use for stuff the city needs. (But, yeah, even just less rats would be a good enough incentive!). Our little building just got its little composting bin. Hurrah!
Confession, we’re part time New Yorkers. Yeah, grandkids on both kids have us in NYC and CA – in three month increments. So, leaving CA, I go thru a bit of kitchen management shock, as I’m used to saving every bit of organic waste for the compost bin, either the one at my own home or the bin we wheel out weekly. Our county had the first curbside recycling in the US, and we were leaders in compost, too.
Another major step forward, when I was president of a major sanitation agency, was to have the waste hauler pick up pre-consumer waste at markets and restaurants (training the staff in multiple languages) and sort it (for the errant fork, glove, etc) and turn it into a slurry. Tank truck it to our plant, where we digest it and create the methane that powers the entire treatment plant AND sells back to the grid.
Anyone know if NYC is on the road to doing this? Think of the food waste in our myriad markets and restaurants going out to the street. Oh, and that might lead me to rant about the many waste haulers on the streets of NYC – City hauls from residences, but different companies on the same blocks for merchants! Yikes. And pick up should be in the middle of the night, only! That could help with some of the corridor/bus/neighborhood traffic issues, too! (I know, previous article!)
Does anyone have any practical suggestions for how to manage this in an already overcrowded NYC apartment? Not sure where to put yet another receptacle in addition to my garbage can and two recycling bins. Do we need to buy even more plastic bags to hold the stuff in our homes before putting them somewhere in the building? My building’s compactor rooms on each floor barely have room for the two recycling bins so not sure where a compost bin can be located. So will that require carrying our compost bags to the basement? I hate to be a whiner but I have read so much about our current recycling programs resulting in a lot of recycling just going to the garbage dump and not being recycled at all. Just a little skeptical.
reuse a plastic or paper bag and freeze your food scraps until you have time to discard them. No need to buy anything fancy. Compost bins take plastic bags. for more help refer to the compost tips page on itseasybeinggreen.org
To answer your question – you can buy a small pail like container (and compostable bags) from Amazon. We have one and it sits in the corner, doesn’t take up much space, and once it fills up, we take it to the basement and put it into the brown bin.
We have been composting in our building for a couple of years now with curbside pickup in the brown bins every Wednesday.
Working very well so far.
How do you keep the stuff in the pail from stinking up your apartment? It’s holding food leftovers at room temperature for a week,
There’s no info on the DSNY site about noncompliance. It says landlords must provide a bin, but nothing about what happens if they don’t. I seriously doubt that my landlord will comply, and none of the market-rate tenants are going to stick their necks out and demand this — we’re too scared of having our rents jacked up. Even if the owner does comply, the building staff will make it as hard as possible: one gross bin in the bowels of the building, no doubt.
What a waste of time and money
Shame on you! Europe has been composting for years, and why shouldn’t we? Do we need to add to the methane that is heating our atmosphere? It only takes a tiny amount of effort. Happily, my building has been doing it for quite some time, so I know.
Banana peels or egg shells I get, but who really has leaves or soil? When I give up on a potted plant once every 14 years I guess.
indoor plant soil needs to get replaced every year.
I take it you are a florist? I have 40 year old plants that are now so large they are practically trees. They have been moved numerous times. No new soil. So this soil replacement thing is definitely new to me.
Tree pits in front of buildings produce leases and soil. Brownstones with backyards produce leaves, soil and twigs/branches. And yes, potted plants.
Do you ever buy or receive a bouquet of flowers as a gift? Tops of a bunch of carrots? That cheese that got a little … sad and blue?
I’ve been composting for 6 years in NY now, in a stainless steel bin with charcoal filter (stops flies and smells). It’s not a big deal, honestly!
To answer a question asked above: Another option is to put your food scraps in the freezer. You can put a shoebox-sized plastic bin in the freezer and collect in there. My family saves plastic bags from store-bought bread and use those to collect our compost. We leave it in the freezer until we can drop off. We used to have the compost jar but I got sick of cleaning it out weekly!
NYC freezer has to be that big accommodate food scrapes
Yeah, I don’t get this. So now I’ve got to store rotting organic waste for a full week INSIDE my apartment which – like another post here – has ZERO extra floor space in the kitchen – or anywhere for that matter. So now we’re attracting vermin and roaches inside our apartments… and then we put it outside and all that rotting waste isn’t going to get vandalized or stench up the street? I like the concept, but the execution really isn’t practical in NYC unless maybe you have a large apartment on a high floor, or live in a new building with a garbage chute. Seriously!
I have purchased leakproof, blocks odor as well. bpi certified bags from amazon, I fill up my food waste in that. we are small family , so not much waste, so I have to go to smart compost bin every third day. plus your regular trash does not small because it has just plastic, and you don’t have to discard that very day either.
Many thanks to Scott Etkin for all the helpful, comprehensive information! I greatly appreciate his coverage of the DSNY’s expanding compost program for WSR readers.
Back in May my apartment building’s management set out compost bins for a trial run before the mandatory fall start date, in an effort to get residents on board (and avoid fines in future!). I myself also rely on the nice orange street-corner Smart Bins, which are all over and a breeze to use!
BAD IDEA!! The rats are going to LOVE THIS!!
What about garage receptacles getting black bags off the sidewalks?
To avoid confusion, I’d suggest editing the article to clarify the name of what people will be putting in their compost bins — “food scraps.” This is not compost. Compost is the finished product, the quality, deep, dark soil with all the food nutrients broken down. It’s also very helpful for people just beginning municipal composting to know exactly what can and cannot go in those brown bins. Diapers and wipes absolutely not, but dirty (from food) napkins, paper towels and even tissues are ok. All the stuff that cannot be put in a backyard composter due to rats and other animals CAN be put in the bins (meats, fats, cheeses, meat bones, candy, leftover pizza, chinese food, etc. etc. )
Hope that’s helpful
please correct your story where it says “There, it is converted into a mix of biosolids – which can then be used for fertilizer and ground cover”. Biosolids is a greenwashed code name for sewage sludge which should not be applied to any land as it is toxic. no one wants it which is a primary reason why NYC needs to reduce use of the digesters and increase actual composting which has beneficial value! see the recent new york times article – https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/31/climate/pfas-fertilizer-sludge-farm.html