Image of Earth Matter's pumpkin compost haul on Governor's Island. Credit: Lizzie Walsh

Were Manhattan Residents Prepared For The Compost Mandate? Maybe Not, Data Shows

As of October 6, 2024, all five boroughs must separate their food waste from trash, but the inadequate optional composting system may have failed to prepare residents

By: Lizzie Walsh

November 22, 2024

In NYC, landfills are the third leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions. In a new mandate, residents across the five boroughs must do their part in reducing these emissions by putting their compost in a separate bin on recycling day.

However, the onus is on property owners to provide composting bins to their tenants, but New Yorkers already only recycle about 17% of their total waste, pointing to larger issues in city-wide education around the existence and importance of sustainable trash practices.

"We already had composting bins?"

Composting may be unfamiliar to many residents facing this new mandate, which could in part be due to lack of knowledge about the availability of compost sites.

An analysis of community compost drop-off sites, including app-controlled Smart Bins in Manhattan showed large differences in neighborhood availability, and that the number of sites in each zip code didn't always correlate to population size.

Some neighborhoods, like Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan, have compost bins that must each serve 909 people, while the Financial District's bins only have to accomodate the food waste of 53 people each.

Charlie Bayrer, co-founder of the largest community compost processing system in New York City, EarthMatterNY on Governors Island, says "Deployment of smart bins began with a pilot in collaboration with [in FiDi]. I think the expansion of their distribution was based on a couple of things...siting them in areas with a lot of highrise residential buildings that would not otherwise be easily served by curbside."