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Queens’ new compost program, just 6 weeks old, is already outpacing the rest of the city
By
Sophia Chang
Published Nov 17, 2022
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NYC Department of Sanitation
By
Sophia Chang
Published Nov 17, 2022
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A new composting program in Queens has kept millions of pounds of organic waste out of landfills since it launched in early October, city sanitation officials said Thursday.
Crews picked up 5.7 million pounds of organic waste in Queens during the first six weeks of the program from Oct. 3 to Nov. 12, far outpacing the rest of the city’s composting rate.
City officials said that’s because the program makes it easier for residents across the borough to compost. Unlike the rest of the city’s composting program — which is only available in seven districts of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan — Queens residents don’t have to register for their organic waste to be picked up, as long as they use a bin with a special label.
The sanitation department said the leafy neighborhoods of Jamaica and St. Albans were the top performers, sending more than 1 million pounds of compost since the Queens program began on Oct. 3.
The amount of compost collected in Queens each week has also soared since the beginning of the program, with 478,000 pounds of compost collected the first week and 1.79 million pounds collected the week of Nov. 12.
“Look at what we can achieve when we just make it simple for New Yorkers to do the right thing; when we treat curbside composting as a service we offer, rather than act like New Yorkers are doing us a service by putting out their material,” said Joshua Goodman, the sanitation department's assistant commissioner for public affairs.
The sanitation department studied similar composting programs in cities including Seattle and Portland and found their programs had early success by focusing on yard waste, Goodman said. That strategy was also adopted for Queens, which is home to 41% of the city’s street trees and has more residential yards than the rest of the city. With the focus on yard waste, the Queens pickup program will be suspended at the end of December and resume in late March. The sanitation department said the material was going to various compost sites and being converted to renewable energy.
“These numbers show that that program design was the right approach, with a 'leafy' area in southeastern Queens producing more diverted material even than Park Slope and parts of Brooklyn that have had composting for a decade – this is a big WOW for us that really proves the value of running an easy, simple, universal program,” Goodman said in an emailed statement.
The compost program saw a 70% increase the week of Nov. 5, when Queens residents composted 1.23 million pounds of organic waste. It was unclear how much of that increase was Halloween pumpkins being tossed after the holiday, Goodman said.
Tagged
queens
composting
sanitation
Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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