Keeping Organic Waste Out of Landfills in Queens, NY

In October 2022, the borough of Queens in New York City, launched a program to collect residents’ organic waste. In just three months’ time, it collected more than 12.7 million pounds—keeping that waste from ending up in landfills.

“We relaxed or got rid of a lot of onerous requirements,” such as having to opt-in to the organic-waste program, noted NYC Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Queens’ residents are automatically enrolled, and no special bins are needed in order to participate. Plus, due to “smart decisions on personnel and fleet deployment,” the city executed this program with efficiency—and simultaneously collected both compost and regular household waste on the majority of its Queens routes.

Large woody debris was sent to a compost facility in New Jersey, and the remainder was slurried and sent to the city’s wastewater treatment plant in Greenpoint or the Pine Island Farm in Massachusetts. The program has paused for winter but will resume in late March 2023.

Read the original article here.