NYC Expands Free Compost Give-Away Sites. Here’s Where to Get Yours This Summer

Find out where to get free composting this summer for your yard garden or neighborhood tree pits made from decomposed food scraps and yard waste The compost bagging machine at the city s -acre composting facility in the Fresh Kills section of Staten Island Photo by Adi Talwar The Big Apple has added a new location to its roster of sites that give away free compost to New Yorkers Made of decomposed food scraps and yard waste this nutrient-rich material can be added to soil to help plants thrive all summer long Every Saturday until Sept residents in eastern Queens can now head to the corner of Hillside Avenue and Avenue C to grab up to bags of compost each weighing pounds Those who are interested must register online to book a time for pickup and registration is limited to one request per household The location is the newest of four Compost Giveback Sites run by the city s Department of Sanitation DSNY that will operate through the fall and give away the same amount of material The department now has a Giveback Site in Staten Island s Freshkills one in Brooklyn s Greenpoint neighborhood and two in Queens DSNY also gives out compost at pop-up events throughout the city and delivers it in bulk to non-profit organizations society gardens and street tree care volunteer groups Information on how to participate is available online here The compost has been certified by the U S Composting Council Seal of Testing Assurance effort and is made at DSNY s Staten Island Compost Facility The not long ago expanded facility has produced about million pounds of finished compost per year over the last several years After a expansion it can now process about million pounds of incoming material per year DSNY noted in a press release While the expansion boosted the site s composting threshold by nearly percent it s one of only two main facilities processing food waste in New York City The other is in Brooklyn Last year locality composting groups and lawmakers pushed the administration to add at least one composting facility to each borough since a lot of the organic waste collected by the Sanitation Department ends up being used for fuel instead of composting The city s current facilities don t just process organic waste for compost but also do anaerobic digestion a process that extracts biogas primarily methane from the digested material and turns it into ability to heat buildings Adding a bunch of smaller facilities dedicated solely to composting and boosting local composting efforts could allow locals to have greater access to the material and foster area engagement environmental groups argue If we have the materials to do something for ourselves then there s a positive society reaction Nando Rodriguez head of the environmental effort at Brotherhood Sister Sol BroSis explained City Limits earlier this year Having local society compost to me is empowering our public Group groups around the city have been fighting for more local-based composting initiatives Last fall the city slashed funding for region composting programs under the Adams administration s budget cuts While activists and lawmakers at City Council managed to secure over million in last year s budget to save the locality programs funds will only last until the fiscal year ends this June The City Council has proposed setting aside million for public composting in the next fiscal year budget but details are still under discussion A new budget is due July Regardless of how the funding shakes out multiple hope the city s new required food waste recycling scheme will boost compost production Since residential curbside composting became mandatory in April DSNY explained it saw record emerging numbers collecting million pounds of organic waste in its fourth week a percent increase over the same period the year before Fines issued to those who don t comply have been put on hold until the end of the year after complaints that the thousands of tickets handed out in the first weeks posed a burden for New Yorkers though selected lawmakers criticized the pause as undermining the Council s efforts to reduce waste Meanwhile the city s Compost Giveback Sites continue to receive composted material and redistribute it to New Yorkers so check out where to get it on DSNY s website and pick up a bag To reach the reporter behind this story contact Mariana citylimits org Want to republish this story Find City Limits reprint procedures here The post NYC Expands Free Compost Give-Away Sites Here s Where to Get Yours This Summer appeared first on City Limits