Mayor Eric Adams announces the launch of a curbside composting program that is coming to the entire borough of Queens this fall (Photo courtesy of mayor’s office)
Aug. 8, 2022 By Christian Murray
The city will be providing residents throughout Queens with a composting service starting in the fall.
The mayor and the Department of Sanitation announced Monday that beginning Oct. 3 all residential buildings in Queens will be part of a curbside composting program.
The city will be collecting leaf and yard waste, food scraps, and food-soiled paper products on a weekly basis throughout the borough. This will be the first time an entire borough will receive the service.
The borough was selected in part because Queens produces a significant amount of leaf and yard waste, with the borough home to 41 percent of New York City’s street trees.
“Starting this fall, we’re bringing guaranteed, weekly curbside composting to the entire borough of Queens — taking action to keep our streets clean and simultaneously fight climate change,” Mayor Adams said. “This launch makes New York City home to the largest curbside composting program in the country.”
Unlike past composting programs, there is no sign-up required for this new service. Residents of Queens need to simply set out their waste on the assigned day and let DSNY pick it up.
The collection schedule will be available on DSNY’s composting website by mid-September.
To participate in the program, residents must place food waste in a labeled bin with a secure lid or a bag to prevent pests and odors. Residents may use an old DSNY-issued brown bin or a lidded, labeled bin of their own.
DSNY will deliver bins to all Queens residential addresses with 10 or more units in the coming weeks. Homeowners can request a bin online at nyc.gov/curbsidecomposting.
Weekly service will begin October 3 and run through late December. After a three-month pause for winter — when there is little to no yard waste to be collected — service will resume in late March 2023.
The city says the program is needed to prevent climate change and waste.
When waste decomposes at a landfill, it creates methane, a potent and dangerous greenhouse gas, the city says. Separating compostable material from household trash is one easy way to ensure a cleaner, greener city.
About one third of the city’s residential waste is compostable material, which can help gardens grow or create power through renewable energy.
Featured Events
31 Comments
So cool people are interested in this story. Trust me: once you start composting, your life will have so much meaning.
I pack up my premade food leftovers in containers for the homeless around here and place it by them with a plastic fork and napkin while they are sleeping outside. I do not like food going to waste.
A lot of people go through garbage cans and dumpsters looking to save money on food. I used to watch them on a show called Extreme Cheapskates but now i watch them on my security cam footage.
They took away the market bags so you have to buy the overpriced garbage bags. You have to sort this and sort that, now foodstuff and gardening. Meanwhile Public Housing does non of it!!!!!!!
Folks if you’re more concerned about rats than global warming, can I make a polite suggestion? Move.
Rats, rats, and more rats.
From my understanding, part of the issue is that there are so many of them. The rat population in NYC has skyrocketed, in part thanks to outdoor dining.
It says compost has to be in a bin with a sealed lid. Sounds more secure than all those regular bags of garbage. It should be an improvement.
We have a serious rat problem in this city. A large part of it is due to outside dining and sheds and city trash litter cans all over areas with poor trash removal by sanitation workers. Most stink of dog poop also, This Composting Program will just add to the problem along with smells and dirt this city entails. Why would you throw food in a bin with no bag? The food will just stick to the containers and few will wash it. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/03/nyregion/new-york-rats-cars.html
There’s so much crime & more important issues than freakin compost! Really I dont feel safe taking train & this bozo mayor spending his time about compost !
Rita- (Hashtagger)You should move if you feel that unsafe. I doubt if you”ll find a city where a mayor only focuses on a single issue ( the issue you feel no less). Expecting anyone, politician, executive, clergyman and any other person in any profession to focus on a single issue is just absurd. The rest of us do more than just post the Fox and Republican talking points to a local blog.
I dont have to move
I think we have bigger fish to fry than compost And re -read my comment I stated there other issues also than compost Thank you
@Rita – Just because there are more pressing issues that require greater attention does not mean you neglect the smaller issues. I’m sure if somebody did that at any job they’d be fired for being negligent.
You tell him, Rita!
The majority of the people here are tired of the old: “Everyone who has a different opinion than me is a Republican that watches FoxNews.”
Every post is the same nonsense.
Blk and brn people were silent for so long and then George Floyd happened. You will not silence us. White Supremacy will be defeated. Why should mostly poor blk and brn communities live in filth!! Housing developments has a serious rat problem. We care about quality of life also!! This will attract more rats and roaches. But yes lets stop the shootings first and reduce crime.
the POC fake victims you referenced will be the ones who refuse to do the composting…then they will just blame systemic racism lack of sanitation resources or Trump…we need to go back to paying these clowns no mind
Anyone with common sense knows things are better than they used to be and that crime is inevitable in large cities ( we have 8.3 million people here…)! People complaining about negative topics such as crime are free to. I do not really care as long as my Sunnyside rentals are rented and the rent I receive is enough to cover my bills and taxes for my primary home in Suffolk.
No one is petrified and no one thinks walking the streets or taking the subway is an easy to way get killed. What people see is crime increasing due to OBVIOUS political factors. I understand why people like you like to downplay crime in NYC but I would have a hard time believing that if someone lit a fire just outside your house or apartment, you’d be OK with waiting to see if it spread to impact your living quarters. When a problem becomes completely obvious, it’s usually too late to quickly reverse it. It then takes 10x the work to correct.
Why not look at the actual crime statistics? You might learn something.
Its not only on the subways. Crime in 2022 is happening everywhere. Most of Queens in the old days was relatively safe with the exception of areas like Jamaica. Nowadays people are getting robbed, attacked waiting at bus stops, red lights in their cars, waking into their homes after being followed from the store. Sure I was followed a month ago around midnight On Skillman Ave. by 2 young homies trying to block my path so they could attempt to rob me, but they backed out. On and on and on. The NYPD isn’t patrolling our streets, subways or making traffic stops. This has directly resulted in young thugs carrying guns on the streets and in their cars at rates we’ve never seen. Never. Back in the old days, you’d get pulled over for just anything so people really didn’t carry in their cars. Just on the streets.
Look up the crime statistics. It isn’t new. I knew people who were robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight on the north side around 2010, or remember Lou Rispoli’s stabbing in 2012? If you look up the stats — it’s as safe now as it was in 2011.
No offense but you should learn to ride a bike or buy/lease a car to get to places.
The last time they had the brown bins, every time I went to throw my compostable stuff inside, some idiot had almost always thrown in plastic bags and other non-bio-degradable matter. Some people apparently can’t read or follow simple instructions.
I dont have to move
I think we have bigger fish to fry than compost And re -read my comment I stated there other issues also than compost Thank you
This statement just gets better and better the more you post it.
Sure lets attract more rats and homeless going through are garbage.
True. Its disgusting! https://nypost.com/2022/06/01/nyc-has-a-major-rat-problem-and-its-not-doing-enough/
The bins are rat proof and homeless people don’t eat leaf litter.
No such thing as rat proof. They are very tenacious creatures. If they smell food they will get to it.
it’s a good think rats dont have noses to be attracted to the smell…even a small smell seeping through the cracks of the cover.
Which is a better defense against rats: a regular garbage bag made of thin plastic and thrown on the sidewalk, or a sealed bin with a secure lid? It’s obvious to everyone that the lidded bin is a step forward.