The NYC Department of Sanitation announced two milestones in its compost giveback program: The Department has now given away more than 5 million pounds of finished compost to 10,000 New York City residents this year alone.
“Operating the nation’s largest and easiest curbside composting program also means giving back to residents,” said DSNY Commissioner Gregory Anderson. “New Yorkers love good compost, and the Department of Sanitation is happy to be turning the food and yard scraps that residents set at the curb into finished compost to nourish parks and gardens.”
New York City residents, nonprofit organizations and city agencies can get free, high-quality compost made from the material collected from the city’s curbside composting program. DSNY gives away compost to residents at six seasonal compost pick-up sites in the spring and summer months, as well as pop-up community giveback events throughout the city.
The Department’s Curbside Composting program serves residents in all five boroughs, making it the largest – and easiest – curbside composting program in the nation. To comply with NYC regulations requiring compostable material to be separated from the trash, residents set out their food scraps, food-soiled paper and yard waste in a marked bin for collection on their weekly recycling day. Rather than shipping this material hundreds of miles away to break down in landfills and emit methane, the Department of Sanitation puts this material to beneficial use by creating finished compost for gardens or renewable energy.
These bags of finished compost – certified by the US Composting Council Seal of Testing Assurance program – are made from food and yard waste at DSNY’s Staten Island Compost Facility. Last year, the Department gave back more than 8 million pounds of compost to residents, nonprofits and community gardens – all made from food scraps, food-soiled paper and yard waste.
The Department also gives free compost and mulch to NYC agencies and nonprofits for their programs, construction or landscaping projects. This includes NYC community gardens, as well as street care volunteer organizations.