A History of Composting in NYC

Composting in NYC
From Colonization to 2020AD
Presentation created by:
gil lopez

Presentation Outline
Compost is Old as Dirt… a 5min Petcha Kucha
The Parks Dept. M.O.U. with DSNY… a sugue
NYC Compost Timeline: 1990 - 2020
Background Info, Terminology & Concepts
Composting in COVID & Immediate Future
References

Housekeeping
I am a practitioner, not a researcher. There is competing info that I did my best to rectify.
This presentation is designed to cover a lot of ground very quickly. I hope to connect a lot of
events and build a strong working knowledge for anyone paying attention. It’s 45mins, but
try to hang with me and write your questions in the chat window. I will do my best to get to
them at the end of the program. If I don’t get to your question, not I am pretty findable on
social media.
I’ve been involved in some events and organizations mentioned in this presentation. I won’t
have time to disclose each one explicitly. Feel free to ask.
As I created this presentation I was employed with Big Reuse and Fortune Society. This
presentation was commissioned by The Queens Public Library
I actively volunteer at Smiling Hogshead Ranch and 45th Street Compost + Garden
This presentation is being recorded and you can watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIr0qJ5ttoY

Land Acknowledgement/Tribal Recognition
I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I live, work and play. In this, I make you all
aware that the issues and work I will discuss today refers to activities that have and are taking place on the
traditional lands of the Lenape Peoples. While colonization has largely extirpated these peoples, I recognize
their continuing connection to land, water and community and I pay respect to Elders past, present and
emerging. My prayer today is that this presentation will help bring honor and dignity back to these lands.

NYC Organics
(mis)Management
A Deep History

2300 BC -1900 AD

5 Minute Pecha Kucha

Lenape Oyster Shell Middens
The first people of Manahatta are the Lenni Lenape and they ate oysters regularly, as did their ancestors,
chucking the shells into enormous piles over the years. These piles of shells are called middens. Middens are
also made of bones, broken pottery, and other ancient discards. In SouthAmerica, middens are the basis of
Tierra Preta, or ‘Indian Black Earth’ which is an early form of engineered, or anthropogenic, soil.
https://slideplayer.com/slide/15104822/
Shell Midden as shown in life-sized diorama & a
16th-century village. Mashantucket Pequot
Museum & Research Center, Connecticut.

Lenape Oyster Shell Middens made of bones, broken pottery, and other
ancient discards. Since everything is organic, it all builds soil for the future.

In 1653 the Dutch built a barrier at the Northern Edge of their settlement to keep pigs
IN town (as they ate the organic debris) and out of agricultural lands to the North.
The
wall
that
became
W
all
Street

Nightsoil & NYC
Nightsoil, or raw human waste, was sometime brought to nearby farms and amended into
fields, but often dumped into the Hudson or East Rivers. By the early 1890s, New York and
Brooklyn had built 844 miles of sewers. To this day we still flush our crap with potable water
and NYC’s combined sewage system has never complied with the Clean W
aterAct of 1972.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/when-american-cities-were-full-of-crap
Photo: Manhattan docks, c. 1890. Library of Congress/LC-DIG-det-4a18012

1881 - Formation of NYC Dept. of Street Cleaning
Now called the Department of Sanitation, the New York City Department of Street
Cleaning was tasked with taking over the responsibility of waste collection and street
cleaning previously held by the Police Department (and pigs, literally).
“NYCWasteLess: A Material Recovery Facility Grows in Brooklyn.” NYC.gov. City of New York

1885 - NYC Builds the First Incinerator in the US
Erected on Governors Island in 1885, and over the next century, incinerators burned much of the city’s waste.
By the 1960’s, the city was burning almost a third of its trash in its 22 municipal incinerators and 2,500
incinerators in apartment buildings. But a combination of environmental problems, particularly disposing of
the ash, along with steep capital and operating costs, made incinerators less attractive by the mid-1980’s.
https://www.wiki.sanitarc.si/1885-reilly-u-s-army-built-first-garbage-incinerator-united-states-governors-island-n-y/
Martin, Douglas. “City’s Last Waste Incinerator Is Torn Down.” The New York Times [New York]

1895 - Waring Modernizes NYCs Waste Management
Throughout the 1880s 75% of NYC’s waste was dumped into theAtlantic Ocean. Commissioner
George Waring instituted a waste management plan that eliminated ocean dumping and
mandated recycling. The Police Department, no ,onger charged with actually cleaning the
streets, instead focused on enforcement, under Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt.
https://www.nycservice.org/organizations/1564
Household waste separated
into three categories:
Food Waste, which was
steamed and compressed to
eventually produce grease
(for soap products) and
fertilizer;
Rubbish, from which paper
and other marketable
materials were salvaged;
Ash, which along with the
nonsalable rubbish was
landfilled.

1923 - Early Signs of Landfill Limits
Articles with headlines like “Problems of Refuse Disposal” began appearing
in the New York Times, mentioning the possibility of using garbage as
fertilizer.
https://www.nytimes.com/1963/12/29/archives/garbage-disposal-plagues-suburbs-many-communities-forced-to-truck.html

1980’s - Urban Waste Management Alternatives
With a waste worker strike in 1981, waste management in urban cities became a
more and more crucial topic as landfill disposal costs escalated and the availability of
landfill space diminished.Alternative methods, such as composting, were explored.
Blum, Barton. “Composting and the Roots of Sustainable Agriculture.” Agricultural History 66.2 (1992): 171–188
America’s landfill usage
peaked when nearly
150 million tons
of garbage was sent to
landfills each year

1990’s - Major Changes to NYC Waste Management
In response to growing opposition to incineration and landfills, NYC shut down all it’s incinerators, instituted mandatory
recycling laws and starting a residential yard-waste collection and composting programs.
In March of 1990, 7,000 drums of toxic waste was removed from the Edgemere Landfill in Queens and DSNY's Bureau of Waste
Prevention, Reuse and Recycling (BWPRR) began a pilot composting program at the Edgemere Landfill, handling 1,000 tons of
leaves.A second composting facility would be opened the same year at Fresh Kills in Staten Island.
The program then expanded to the Bronx, and Brooklyn.
https://citylimits.org/2013/07/08/court-battle-over-brooklyn-compost-site/

In 1997 the Parks
Department and the
Department of Sanitation
had an understanding that
it was mutually beneficial
to create compost from
residential yard waste and
some home kitchen
scraps on Parks lands.

NYC Organics: 1990-2020
Evolution and Devolution of New York City’s Composting Programs

Background info & Terminology
Food Waste
Kitchen Scraps
Leaf and Yard Waste
Residential vs Commercial waste
Food Recovery Hierarchy

Food Waste = Edible food that has been wasted

Unlike many environmental issues where corporations are the
major culprits, US households produce the majority of food waste.

Kitchen Scraps
Food Scraps, Kitchen Scraps, Table
Scraps are non-edible items that may
be used to make soup stocks, feeding
livestock animals or for industrial
uses such as mushroom production,
soap-making, waste to energy and
home heating gas.
Kitchen scraps should never be sent
to landfill.
If it grew from the soil or was alive it
should go back to the living soil
food-web!

Organics are composed of
all compostable material
including food waste, food
soiled paper, kitchen scraps
and leaf & yard waste.

NYC Commercial Waste Profile in 2017 (or any year really)
No data provided
due to
lack of commercial regulation,
oversight or reporting.

Compost is made by mixing leaf & yard waste (browns/
Carbon) with other organics (green/Nitrogen) including
food waste, kitchen scraps, food soiled paper and
sometimes compostable bioplastics.

http://commongroundcompost.com/what-is-compost/compost-in-nyc/
Graphic created by
Common Ground
Compost

#NYCompost from 1990 - 2020
LES Ecology Center
NYC Compost Project
Ferry Point Park Organic Composting
Center
Rikers Island Compost Facility
Soundview Compost Facility
Spring Creek Compost Facility
Green Market collections
Big Reuse
Queens Libraries
DSNY Local Organics Recovery
Program (LORP)
Idlewild and Canarsie yardwaste
composting sites
Food Scraps Drop-Offs (FSDOs)
Local Law 42 (LL42)
School Compost Programs
Local Law 77
Red Hook Compost Site
“Make Compost Not Trash” Campaign

A working history of #NYCompost from 1990 - 2020

January 1990 - The Lower East Side Ecology
Center’s community compost program begins at
a community garden on East 7th Street.

1990 - New York City formally began
composting… with a pilot project at the
Edgemere Landfill in Queens, which
closed in July 1991 One thousand tons
of leaves were processed at the time,
the embryonic start to a program that
expanded into diverting about 30,000
tons a year of organic materials
including leaves, grass clippings and
Christmas trees collected from or
dropped off by residents and City
institutions; yard trimmings delivered
by private landscapers; and food
residuals processed from Riker’s Island
prisons. (https://www.biocycle.net/
composting-comes-back-to-the-big-
apple/)

March 1990 - the city and state began removing 7,000 drums of toxic waste from
the Edgemere Landfill. That year, the Department of Sanitation's Bureau of
Waste Prevention, Reuse and Recycling (BWPRR) began a pilot composting
program at the Edgemere Landfill, handling 1,000 tons of leaves. Another
composting facility would be opened the same year at Fresh Kills in Staten
Island. The program then expanded to the Bronx, and Brooklyn.

1992 - DSNY piloted a curbside organics collection program in Park
Slope. The City decided not to expand the program because the amount
of people composting was not worth the cost of the extra collection
routes

1993 DSNY establishes a second compost pilot program for high
rise buildings in Starrett City, Brooklyn. This pilot was a failure
because of low participation and high contamination rates.

Early 1993 - NYC Compost Project is created by the New York City Department
of Sanitation’s (DSNY) Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse, and Recycling
(BWPRR). Establishes compost education programs at the City’s 4 Botanical
Gardens and the Lower East Side Ecology Center in Manhattan.MISSION:
works to rebuild NYC’s soil by providing residents with the knowledge, skills,
and opportunities they need to make and use compost locally, and supports a
growing network of community compost sites including the . Brooklyn Botanic
Garden, Big Reuse, Earth Matter NY, the Lower East Side Ecology Center,
Queens Botanical Garden, the Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical
Garden, and the New York Botanical Garden.The project’s original goal was
educational outreach around backyard composting, hoping to encourage New
Yorkers to compost their yard waste rather than contributing it to the landfill.
However, only one third of New Yorkers have any form of backyard access.

Early 1994 - The Lower East Side Ecology Center began offering the residential
compost collection program at the Union Square Greenmarket. Now the Cities
longest running food scrap drop-off.

1994 - Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx opened the city’s first public
composting demonstration site

1995 - The NYC Compost Project was briefly defunded

October 28, 1997 - After discussions with the
Parks Department, Natural Resources Group led
to the creation of a Memorandum of
Understanding, signed by the Commissioners of
Parks and Sanitation (Composting in New York
City: A Complete Program History, Lang
Appendix II pp90-91). Under the terms of the
agreement, in exchange for the temporary use of
Parks’ sites, Sanitation agreed to utilize the
compost produced for environmental restoration
or other Parks’ maintenance and beautification
projects citywide.

September 1997 - Organic Composting Center opens in Ferry Point Park. The
413-acre parcel beneath the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, was a garbage dump
until 1963. The park opened in 1993. After a restoration that included the
construction of composting bins, a storage building and a wood-chipper the
Organic Compositing Center was opened under the acting Parks
Commissioner Mr. Henry Stern. The site accepted leaves and lawn and garden
waste from surrounding neighborhoods and was expected to expand. After a
few months of operations, this compost site had the capacity to compost 7,000
tons per year. More than double the 3,000 tons DSNY was producing at the
time at their Fresh Kills yard waste composting facility on Staten Island. Ferry
Point Park Organic Composting Center was closed the site when the city
decided to locate a city golf course there in 2015. (https://www.nytimes.com/
1998/01/04/nyregion/fyi-883867.html Martin Stolz Jan. 4, 1998)

1998 - Rikers Island starts turning food scraps into compost for the island
(https://www.wastedive.com/news/dsny-issues-34m-rfp-to-operate-3-city-
compost-sites-with-potential-for-mor/505378/)

1999 - Soundview starts recycling Christmas trees (https://www.wastedive.com/
news/dsny-issues-34m-rfp-to-operate-3-city-compost-sites-with-potential-for-
mor/505378/)

2001 - Spring Creek Composting Facility opens. Built under a memorandum of
understanding between Parks and DSNY, allowed about 20 acres of Spring
Creek Park to be used for the facility.

July, 2002,The NYC Compost Project was suspended along with other long
standing Recycling programs due to the City's fiscal crisis. They included glass
and plastic recycling collection, leaf and yard waste collection and Christmas
Tree (mulchfest) collection.

2004 - Scrap collection at farmers markets expands, ten years after the LES
Ecology Center started collecting kitchen scraps at the Union Sq. farmers
market.

2005 - The Idlewild and Canarsie yardwaste composting sites were closed amid
community opposition

2007 - The City's leaf collection program was suspended. And the Soundview
yardwaste composting site was closed after 12 years of operations due to local
complaints about smells, which first started in 2003. In 2010, under community
pressure, they linked the odors to a broken sewer line under the site.

August 16, 2010 - Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed Local Law 42 (LL42). This
law requires that DSNY, in conjunction with the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term
Planning and Sustainability, issue a report on possible methods of composting
a larger portion of the organics in NYC’s waste stream. Full details on page 1
here: https://dsny.cityofnewyork.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/about_2012-
assessment-of-composting-opportunities_0815.pdf

2011 - Greening Western Queens Libraries partners with Big Reuse and
Smiling Hogshead Ranch to open food scrap drop-offs at six branches LIC,
Astoria, Sunnyside and Woodside.

March 1, 2011 - GrowNYC begins the residential compost collection pilot
program at seven greenmarkets.

February 27, 2012 - A cafeteria composting pilot program in eight public
schools on Manhattan’s Upper West Side launches. The pilot is designed to test
the viability of separating and composting food waste. Click for details D3
Green Schools NY.

January 6, 2013 - GrowNYC Greenmarket collection program hits 1,000,000
pounds of compost collected.

April 25, 2013 - Mayor Bloomberg announces more than 100 restaurants to
participate in the “Food Waste Challenge.” A city program designed to reduce
the amount of commercial waste sent to landfills.

September 1, 2012 - D3 Green school pilot group expands to 89 public schools
through the Department of Sanitation and the Department of Education.

October 2, 2013 - Under Mayor Bloomberg, DSNY introduced the first pilot
program to collect organic waste from households and schools in northern
Staten Island. New legislation passes for compost, which:Establishes a pilot for
the curbside collection of household food scraps in no fewer than 100,000
homesEstablishes a pilot in no fewer then 400 public schoolRequires a study to
be completed on improving community composting

October 2013 - Local Law 77, passed by the NYC Council, required the DSNY
to establish a voluntary residential organic waste curbside pilot program (in no
fewer than 100,000 households) and a school organic waste collection pilot
program (in no fewer than 400 public schools.) The law also required a study
monitoring the program and offering ways to improve community composting.
Under the program, residents collect food waste in picnic-basket size-
containers in their homes, and those containers are then put in larger brown
bins on the curb for pickup by the sanitation trucks. DSNY provides 32 or 35-
gallon brown organics bins, posters, and decals to each school based on their
student population. Each school is instructed to set up waste sorting stations in
the cafeteria where students are instructed to separate their recyclables from
the refuse. DSNY then collects organic material from all participating schools
Monday through Friday.

January 1, 2015 - Expand school collection to no less than 400 schools in all 5
boroughs.
Conduct a study on improving community composting,
including:Recommendations for optimizing community composting
resourcesAn assessment of markets for finished compost within the city,
considering use by city agencies and retail salesStrategies to expand
community composting locations in the 5 boroughs

2015 - WeRadiate calculates that community gardens could effectively capture
113 tons of food waste daily if they allocated only 2% of their space to
composting efforts.

Graphic designer Debbie Ullman found that in times of continuing digitalization,
newspapers are on their decline. As a consequence, she turned her attention to
empty newspapers boxes. Ullman turned a number of these now useless boxes into
public composting bins. The result? New York Compost (see what she did there?)
was born.

April 14, 2018 - David Buckel, cofounder of Red Hook Compost in Brooklyn,
the largest non-fossil fueled composting site in the US, dies by self-
immolation in Prospect Park. This should have been a watershed moment, but
it was mostly unnoticed and bared no affect on Sanitation policy. In his final
letter David wrote, “Most humans on the planet now breathe air made
unhealthy by fossil fuels, and many die early deaths as a result -- my early
death by fossil fuel reflects what we are doing to ourselves. Our present grows
more desperate; our future needs more than what we’ve been doing. “

Composting the 2000’s
November 7, 2013 - GrowNYC Greenmarket collection program hits 2,000,000 pounds of compost collected.
December 19, 2013 - Waste Management and Newtown Creek wastewater treatment plant launch a one-year long
pilot program to accept slurried residential food scraps and commingle them with wastewater for digestion, and
analyze data from the new recipe.
December 30, 2013 - Legislation Passes Regulating Commercial Organic Waste. This legislation requires restaurants,
food service establishments of a certain size, and commercial operations that generate significant food waste, to
source separate their organic waste by July 1, 2015.
December 1, 2014 - Expansion of the Organics Collection Program continued through 2014, reaching 40% of NYC
schools throughout the 5 boroughs.
January 1, 2015 - Expand school collection to no less than 400 schools in all 5 boroughs.
Conduct a study on improving community composting, including: 1) Recommendations for optimizing community
composting resources. 2) An assessment of markets for finished compost within the city, considering use by city
agencies and retail sales. 3)Strategies to expand community composting locations in the 5 boroughs
In 2015 Mayor Bill de Blasio expanded NYC’s program, making it the largest compost program in the country.Since
the pilot program established in 2013 in Staten Island, the NYC Organics Curbside Collection program has expanded
to all five boroughs serving more than 3.5 million residents. However, participation in the composting program is
entirely voluntary. Unlike other cities, such as San Francisco, Seattle and Portland where composting is mandated by
law, New Yorkers are not fined for refusing to participate.
https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/macbride13/research/timelines/memo-2-the-history-of-composting/

April 22, 2015 - Mayor de Blasio releases One New York (OneNYC): The Plan for a Strong and Just City, and
outlines NYC’s goal to send Zero Waste to landfills and reduce waste disposal by 90% relative to 2005 levels, by
2030. The press release outlines the plan, and the full list of initiatives outlines the Zero Waste goals: 1) Expand the
Organics Collection Program to serve all New Yorkers by 2018.
2) Expand curbside recycling by offering single-stream recycling by 2020. 2) Additional goals include recycling and
waste reduction in NYCHA housing, Zero Waste schools, reuse and recycling of textiles and electronic waste, and
developing a blueprint for a “Save As You Throw” program for NYC’s future.
June 1, 2015 - Yard waste collection will happen March 1st to July 31st and Sept 1st to Nov 30th each year.
July 10, 2015 - GrowNYC Greenmarket collection program hits 3,000,000 pounds of compost collected.
August 19, 2015 - Public Comment Period opens for the regulation proposals for the sourceseparation and disposal
of organic waste by commercial businesses in NYC. Under this law, the following enterprises will be required to
sort organic waste onsite and either: contract with a BIC-approved hauler for food scrap removal and transport to
a processing facility; internally manage transport of the organic material to a processing facility; or begin utilizing
an onsite food scrap processing technology: 1) Food service establishments in hotels with 150 or more rooms. 2)
Food service vendors in arenas and stadiums with seating capacity of at least 15,000 people. 3) Food manufacturers
with a floor area of at least 25,000 sq. ft.. 4) Food wholesalers with a floor area of at least 20,000 sq. ft.
January 13, 2016 - To date, compost collection through DSNY was offered to 750,000 households in Staten Island,
Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, Maps of the participating neighborhoods can be found on the DSNY website

February 1, 2016 - The Mayor’s Zero Waste Challenge invites arenas, food wholesalers and manufacturers, all
food service establishments in hotels, and other businesses, to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill or
incineration by at least 50% by June 2016. Participating businesses will be recognized by the city, and there
are no penalties for failing to reach waste reduction goals set during the Challenge. DSNY released an
official notice outlining new recycling requirements for businesses that were made enforceable starting in
August 2017.
Prior to that, as of July 19, 2016, certain large food-waste generators in NYC (e.g. hotels with 150 or more
rooms; food service venues in arenas or stadiums seating more than 15,000; food manufacturers with a floor
area of at least 225,000 square feet; and food wholesalers with a floor area of at least 20,000 square feet) had
been required to separate their organics. Zero Waste goals, including expansion of the Organics Collection
Program to serve all New Yorkers by 2018.
Spring 2016 - The Waste Management organic waste digestion pilot is set to resume at the Newtown Creek
wastewater treatment plant
2017 - DSNY Waste Characterization Report https://dsny.cityofnewyork.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/2017-
Waste-Characterization-Study.pdf
Dec 21, 2017: 10 Million Pounds of Food Scraps Collected: Successful Joint Initiative by GrowNYC and DSNY
Hits Organic Waste Collection Milestone in NYC https://www.grownyc.org/files/gmkt/Press/
press_release-10_million_pounds_of_food_scraps_final.pdf
2018 NYC Council passes the Waste Equity Bill (Intro 157-C), sponsored by Council Member Antonio Reynoso,
provides much needed relief to communities in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens that have disproportionately
shared the city's waste management infrastructure

2019 Despite benefits, the city paused the expansion of the Organics Curbside
Collection program.
May 2019, Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia said the city was going
to take a pause to revamp the program before it expands any further. “We
believe that for the program to be successful over the long term, we must
ensure New Yorkers are getting the very best service when curbside organics
collection reaches their neighborhoods,” she said in testimony before the City
Council. “To achieve this, the city is evaluating its current service with the
goal of increasing efficiencies and streamlining the program.”
2019 “Make Compost, Not Trash“ campaign attempts to educate residents in
severely underperforming neighborhoods to both use their brown bins for
kitchen scraps and to reduce the amount of contaminants placed in the brown
bins

References I
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/dsny/site/services/food-scraps-and-yard-waste-page/leaf-and-yard-waste
https://projects.newsdoc.org/compostingthebigapple/#top
https://www.institutofranklin.net/sites/default/files/fckeditor/CS%20Pigs%20in%20New%20York.pdf
https://oyc.yale.edu/history/hist-234/
lecture-11#:~:text=The%20sanitary%20movement%20was%20an,the%20struggle%20against%20infectious%20disease
s.
https://ilsr.org/rule/on-farm-composting/new-york/
https://dsny.cityofnewyork.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/about_2012-assessment-of-composting-
opportunities_0815.pdf
https://dsny.cityofnewyork.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/2017-Waste-Characterization-Study.pdf
https://www.wastetodaymagazine.com/article/new-york-city-organics-collection-waste-program/
https://ahealthyblueprint.com/2020/04/22/composting-in-nyc-during-covid19/
https://www.biocycle.net/the-evolution-of-new-york-citys-bigcompost/
https://dsny.cityofnewyork.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/about_2001-composting-in-nyc_0815.pdf

References II
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/dsny/site/our-work/educator-resources
https://materials.bwprronline.org/home/17
https://materials.bwprronline.org/system/tdf/06339-OutdoorCompostGuide-0218.pdf
https://materials.bwprronline.org/system/tdf/indoor-worm-bin-composting-brochure-06340-f.pdf
https://materials.bwprronline.org/system/tdf/MCM-Nov2018-0219-FINAL.pdf
http://commongroundcompost.com/what-is-compost/learning-to-compost/anaerobic-digestion/
https://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/97612.html
https://www.makecompost.nyc
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/dsny/site/resources/reports/organics-reports
https://youtu.be/032Xhf-4JTY
Blum, Barton. “Composting and the Roots of Sustainable Agriculture.” Agricultural History 66.2 (1992): 171–188

References III
https://www.6sqft.com/manure-heaps-fat-melting-and-offensive-privies-mapping-nycs-19th-century-nuisances
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/when-american-cities-were-full-of-crap
https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2019/08/talking-trash-a-history-of-new-york-city-sanitation.html
https://untappedcities.com/2013/07/31/history-of-nyc-streets-wall-street-wall-almost-destroyed-by-pigs/
https://www.instituteformindfulagriculture.org/writings-1/2016/3/24/the-haber-bosch-process-1
https://journals.ashs.org/downloadpdf/journals/horttech/2/2/article-p267.pdf
https://www.grownyc.org/files/gmkt/Press/press_release-10_million_pounds_of_food_scraps_final.pdf
https://www.wiki.sanitarc.si/1885-reilly-u-s-army-built-first-garbage-incinerator-united-states-governors-island-n-
y/
https://drawdown.org/solutions/composting
https://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/urban-garden-zmaz78mjzgoe#axzz38JBo8RxZ
https://medium.com/@jp5485/the-pause-6252e3811121

C O M P O S T U N D E R
C O V I D D U R E S S
G I L L O P E Z
Q U E E N S L I B R A RY
N O V E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 2 0

“ E V E RY O N E U N D E R S TA N D S T H E S H O R T- T E R M
F I S C A L C H A L L E N G E S T H E C I T Y I S FA C I N G ,
B U T C U T T I N G T H I S P R O G R A M — W H I C H I S A
C E N T E R P I E C E O F T H E A D M I N I S T R AT I O N ’ S
Z E R O WA S T E A N D [ C L I M AT E C H A N G E ]
I N I T I AT I V E S — I S T H E W R O N G WAY T O
A D D R E S S T H E P R O B L E M , ” E R I C G O L D S T E I N ,
N E W Y O R K C I T Y E N V I R O N M E N T D I R E C T O R
AT T H E N AT U R A L R E S O U R C E S D E F E N S E
C O U N C I L , T O L D P O L I T I C O .

I N A F E B R U A RY 2 0 1 9 S T U D Y, " H O W M U C H P O T E N T I A L
R E V E N U E A R E N E W Y O R K E R S WA S T I N G B Y T R A S H I N G
O R G A N I C S ? , " T H E C I T Y ’ S I N D E P E N D E N T B U D G E T O F F I C E
C A L C U L AT E D T H AT I F A L L O F T H E 1 M I L L I O N T O N S O F F O O D
A N D YA R D WA S T E G E N E R AT E D B Y N E W Y O R K E R S A N N U A L LY
W E R E R E C Y C L E D I N T O C O M P O S T, I T C O U L D P R O D U C E $ 1 2 . 5
M I L L I O N I N R E V E N U E . I F T H E S A M E A N N U A L T O N N A G E W E R E
R E C Y C L E D I N T O B I O G A S A N D U S E D T O G E N E R AT E
E L E C T R I C I T Y, T H E P O T E N T I A L R E V E N U E C O U L D B E A S M U C H
A S $ 2 2 . 5 M I L L I O N .

NYC Department of Parks and Recreation claims they
have no mandate to compost.

Complementary Compost Projects in Sunnyside
Sunnyside-Woodside
Composting Crew 45th St. Compost + Garden

45th St. Gains
Access to their lot
SWCC takes access

Parks Dept Removes SWCC Raised Beds

45th St. hosts
A free soil metals
testing event
SWCC takes back access

Sunnyside-Woodside Compost Crew
But Parks rips out
their beds again
anyway
SWCC site has clean soil!

If you are dropping off kitchen scraps at a community
garden, please consider donating time, money or other
resources (like tools or cookies). They are not civil
servants and they not providing a service for you, they
are volunteers offering their community mutual aid.

Yay!
The
Queensbridge
compost site has
reopened.

Yay!
The
Queensbridge
compost site has
reopened.
But they forgot to
mention…

The
Queensbridge
license to use the
site expires a the
end of 2020 and
Parks is declining
to renew it.

It seems that all composting sites that exist on
Parks land are in danger.

If/when the Queensbridge compost site is closed, material
that is currently going there will be sent to either Fresh Kills
in Staten Island to be composted, or delivered to Waste
Management in E. Williamsburg where they will feed it to a
bio digester.
M Y U N D E R S TA N D I N G I S T H E C I T Y B A R E LY H A S T H E B U D G E T,
T R U C K S A N D D R I V E R S T O G E T M AT E R I A L T O T H E C E N T R A L LY
L O C AT E D Q U E E N S B R I D G E , I T W I L L C O S T M U C H M O R E T O
T R U C K I T A L L T O S TAT E N I S L A N D , P L U S T H E Q U A L I T Y O F T H E
C O M P O S T I S L O W E R AT F R E S H K I L L S .
T H E B I O D I G E S T E R S A R E N O T H O O K E D U P T O T H E G R I D S O
T H E G A S D O E S N ’ T P R O V I D E A B E N E F I T, I T I S J U S T F L A R E D
O F F. I F T H I S I S T R U E , I T I S C O M P L E T E LY U N A C C E P TA B L E , I F I T
I S FA L S E , P L E A S E C O R R E C T M E I N T H E C O M M E N T S .
U P D AT E F R O M D E C 2 0 2 1 I N N E X T S L I D E …

Continue to follow the #SaveOurCompost campaign

TA G A N D E N G A G E Y O U R E L E C T E D O F F I C I A L S , I N C L U D I N G T H E
M AY O R A N D Y O U R C O U N C I L P E R S O N O N S O C I A L M E D I A . M A K E
S U R E T H E Y A R E A WA R E A N D E N G A G E D W I T H T H I S I S S U E .

Rally around Big Reuse as it seems they are
STILL on the chopping block

next on the chopping block
R E V I E W T H E F O O D R E C O V E RY H I E R A R C H I E S A N D D O Y O U R B E S T N O T
T O P R O D U C E F O O D WA S T E , O N LY D R O P - O F F K I T C H E N S C R A P S .

next on the chopping block
R E V I E W T H E F O O D R E C O V E RY H I E R A R C H I E S A N D D O Y O U R B E S T N O T
T O P R O D U C E F O O D WA S T E , O N LY D R O P - O F F K I T C H E N S C R A P S .
Get involved with your nearest composting site,
or start a new one!

Keep the pressure on elected officials including the
Mayor, Comptroller Parks and DSNY Commissioner
F I N D C R E AT I V E WAY S T O L E T O U R L E A D E R S K N O W T H I S I S A N
I M P O R TA N T I S S U E , M A K E T H E M L A U G H , O R TA K E PA U S E T O
C O N S I D E R H O W I M P O R TA N T C O M P O S T I S .

Help DSNY find a community group to partner with to
host a food scrap drop-off in underserved NYC districts.

Help DSNY find a community group to partner with to
host a food scrap drop-off in underserved NYC districts.
R E D O U B L E E F F O R T S T O C O M P O S T AT H O M E O R A S N E A R T O H O M E
A S P O S S I B L E .

S U P P O R T M U LT I P L E M E T H O D S O F F O O D S C R A P C O L L E C T I O N
S TA R T I N G W I T H S M A L L S C A L E A N D W O R K I N G U P T O M U N I C I PA L

Demand the city fully fund and expand the NYC
Compost Project to include more funded community
scale compost operations in every borough.

I F T H E M AY O R F U N D S T H E B R O W N B I N ( C U R B S I D E ) P R O G R A M , W O R K
T O E N S U R E T H E S Y S T E M I C P R O B L E M S T H AT H AV E H I S T O R I C A L LY
P L A G U E D T H I S P R O G R A M A R E A D D R E S S E D A N D F I X E D B E F O R E T H E
P R O G R A M B E G I N S E X PA N D I N G A G A I N .

I F T H E M AY O R F U N D S T H E B R O W N B I N ( C U R B S I D E ) P R O G R A M , W O R K
T O E N S U R E T H E S Y S T E M I C P R O B L E M S T H AT H AV E H I S T O R I C A L LY
P L A G U E D T H I S P R O G R A M A R E A D D R E S S E D A N D F I X E D B E F O R E T H E
P R O G R A M B E G I N S E X PA N D I N G A G A I N .
Demand equitable access for composting services to
ALL New Yorkers, not just some neighborhoods

A History of Composting in NYC

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