Curbside Composting Expands to Include All of NYC

Reducing waste and helping the environment just got a little bit easier in New York City, thanks to the NYC Department of Sanitation’s (DSNY) curbside composting program for residential buildings. As of October 6, DSNY is collecting compostable materials on the same day that residents have recycling picked up. If your building has not already ordered a free Brown Bin, now is the time to do so. Orders must be placed by October 28, 2024, to ensure your building is equipped for compost collection. You can also use any container 55 gallons or less with a secure lid. Beginning in the spring of 2025, residential composting will be mandatory, and residents who don’t comply will be subject to fines.

By separating out compostable materials—food scraps and food-soiled paper, including meat, bones, dairy, and prepared foods; greasy uncoated paper plates and pizza boxes; and yard waste—about one-third of trash could be diverted from landfills and instead be used to enrich the soil in the City’s parks and gardens or to create renewable energy. In addition to reducing the cost of transporting NYC’s waste and minimizing our individual carbon footprints, composting is one of several initiatives by DSNY that aims to reduce rats and keep our streets clean.

The City is also transforming how trash is collected. All businesses are already required to use bins with secure lids when setting out regular trash for collection. Next month, properties with fewer than 10 residential units will be required to use bins with secure lids for trash set-out (55 gallons max), too, before transitioning to the use of an official NYC bin next summer. Eventually, all residential properties will need to containerize trash, which may require using stationary, on-street containers that are serviced by DSNY’s new fleet of automated side-loading garbage trucks.

Meanwhile, the Lincoln Square BID is doing its part to keep our streets clean and bag-free. Every day, the BID’s Clean Team sweeps up public litter throughout the district and bags it. The collected trash is then placed into six Citibins located throughout Lincoln Square while it awaits collection by DSNY. The Citibins provide a rodent-proof container for our team to store the approximately 300 bags of trash per day—this means no trash bags on the sidewalk or snacks for rats.

Still have questions about how to participate in the City’s new composting program? For more information and to order your bin, visit the official composting program page. Each Thursday through December 12, DSNY will host virtual info sessions for the general public (sometimes available with Spanish and Chinese translations) and separate sessions for building management (find the full schedule of sessions and register here). Additionally, the Upper West Side Coalition Forum is hosting a Q&A session with the DSNY on October 15 at 6:30pm. The discussion will cover composting and garbage containerization. Join here (no advance registration required), and submit questions in advance to upperwestsidecoalition@gmail.com.

Photo Credit: The NYC Department of Sanitation