New York City's Compost Program Partially Refunded
Print this Article | Send to Colleague
In early 2020 the funding for New York City’s curbside collection of food waste was suspended. This
sent the NYC Compost Project into crisis mode. With most of the staff laid off, the community
composting that is still happening is solely due to volunteer efforts. The city council and Mayor
de Blasio have vowed to restore $2.866 million in funding. That funding has been restored for 5
community compost facilities scattered throughout NYC's boroughs.
Jodie Colon, Manager of the NYC Compost Project, says, "Some funding for community composting has
been restored in the City's budget. This funding is about 50% of our former combined budget (Grow
NYC and Compost Project) and will allow Grow NYC to re-open their high volume food scrap drop-offs
(FSDOs) and allow NYC Compost Project to support FSDOs and accept material for composting."
Jodie Colon is the 2019 recipient of the H. Clark Gregory Award for outstanding grass roots efforts to
promote composting and public outreach.
Grow NYC is a food systems organization working to connect small farms directly with consumers
through greenmarkets. Grow NYC also provides education on recycling programs, building and
supporting community gardens, and education through distance learning and digital field trips.
Eric Goldstein, Senior Attorney for the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) and New York City
Environmental Director says," Composting is an essential sanitation service, and this partial
funding is a not nearly enough. There are some additional funding possibilities from foundations
and corporations, but they would be little more than a stop gap. The real solution is mandatory
composting." Goldstein works closely with Mayor de Blasio and envisions a five year plan to
implement a mandatory composting plan for both residential and commercial sectors.
Not all of the cities drop-off sites have been funded, and curbside pickup is still shut down. With
over a quarter million pounds of food waste being composted a day before funding was removed, the
need for organics recycling in NYC cannot be overstated.
