Curbside Composting Comes to Queens
October 5, 2022
Queens residents can now take advantage of the Department of Sanitation’s curbside composting pickup service. This program–the largest of its kind in the country–is a three-month pilot program and the city’s first borough-wide collection of compost through curbside pickup. Compost will be collected on recycling days and will be used as soil for the City’s parks and gardens, and it could even help reduce the rat population in the city.
Compost is decomposed organic food waste that is recycled for other uses. Thirty percent of all waste contains food and yard scraps that could otherwise be composted. If composted, organic waste can become a useful fertilizer that adds nutrients to soil for trees, gardens, and farms.
Composting is an important method of inhibiting the climate crisis. Composting your food waste keeps these natural scraps out of landfills where they take up space and release methane – a greenhouse gas 30 times more potent than carbon. Food scraps and other organics do not break down in landfills the same way they do in compost piles. Not only does composting reduce waste, it can also be used to make renewable diesel through anaerobic digestion.
The New York League of Conservation Voters applauds Mayor Adams and the Department of Sanitation on pushing this program forward. While the League supports expanding this program citywide, for now, even if you are not a resident of Queens, you can still compost and take advantage of local drop-off sites, like those available here: NYS Food Scraps Drop-Off & Collection Programs.
We hope you take advantage of composting wherever you are in the state!
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