Record £3.8 million Compost was collected in the second week of the new recycling mandate. This is overwhelming enough that the city has launched a new site specializing in “black gold.”
This is 1,900 tonnes of food scrap, food production paper removed from landfills, and garden waste, making the highest weekly total in the city’s history, the Ministry of Health told the Post.
The load that can cause jaw drops and vomiting is three times more than that composted a year ago when organic recycling was encouraged but not mandated in five boroughs.
It also has a 12% surge from £2.6 million collected in the first week of the new program earlier this month.
“After 12 years of treatment of composting like a niche program, it took just two weeks of regular operations to remove record amounts of food waste and garden scrap from the landfill,” deputy Commissioner Javier Rojang posted in a statement. “These incredible numbers show that a normal, easy-to-use, and enforceable composting program works.
“When you cut it out with special rules, breaks, and start and stops – when participation is easier, New Yorkers sometimes do the right thing and set records along the way.”
Previous records of the compost collection were set in November 2024 when the department first deployed the compost model, but when it was a voluntary program.
Over 3.2 million pounds of compost have been collected for the second week in a row. This has declined in line with expectations of the fall season, when residents throw leaves and garden waste.
Breaking that record in April is unprecedented, the agency said.
The tonnage of compost skyrockets appears to have plummeted in the number of fines. This could indicate that New Yorkers are on the new order.
Approximately 1,758 summons were distributed to properties that throw compostable material into regular trash.
The number of people seeking compost back – this time in the form of gardening soil – is also rising, leading the city to open a new compost distribution site in Astoria.
Compost lovers can get a 40-pound bag from the 77-28 19th Avenue facility, which begins Wednesday.
The new 77-28 19th Avenue facility will be its third prize site. The original opened in 2017 at Kill in the Netherlands, but since last summer the Green Point website has been in operation.
Sanitation officials hope to provide residents with more than 5 million pounds of compost this summer. Tens of millions of pounds have also been handed over to nonprofits, and this year it will be sold to landscapers.
The mandatory composting program has been controversial since the fine came into effect on April 1 for not being fined.
The landlord and property manager accused the mandate of being unsustainable, claiming that the dumpster would jump into a garbage pile and, benefiting from the anonymity granted by the garbage chute, would jump into a garbage pile to separate the tenants.
Last week, Common Sense Caucus introduced a bill that reversed essential aspects of the program and rolled back disciplinary fines.
Small groups will probably have a hard time passing the bill – the city council only approved the mandatory composting law in 2023.
