With the new budget, Mayor Bill de Blasio is about to end all composting in NYC for at least the next fiscal year.

There are short term and long term consequences to this.

Short term, for as long as composting is suspended, NYC will send more waste to landfills and incinerators.

Currently, NYC composts 308,600* pounds per day. With composting suspended, these 308,600 pounds will instead need to go to landfills and incinerators, where they will release greenhouse gases.

Long term, it likely will take years for our composting programs to recover. We have a precedent for this.

After 9/11, NYC temporarily stopped recycling glass and plastic to save money. It reintroduced plastic recycling in 2003 and glass in 2004, but it took years for the capture rates to rebound to pre-9/11 numbers.

Composting is essential to our environment and community. We cannot afford to regress.

If you care about composting in NYC, please let Mayor Bill de Blasio know. 

*According to the Department of Sanitation’s latest annual report, DSNY collects 308,600 lb of organics (food scraps, yard waste, and other material) for recycling (composting or anaerobically digesting) every day.