Composting Must Be Obligatory in New York City
by
Katherine Kam|December 2, 2021
Composting benefits the planet, and it can be rewarding. Photo: Katherine Kam
In Japan, all citizens are accountable for arranging their trash into a number of waste streams. They are needed to label clear trash can with their name and address, so the contents can be easily determined. If anything is arranged improperly, they will have their bag returned and be told to arrange their trash correctly. This stringent system has led to about 99 percent of Japans local waste being diverted from landfills.
As I walk past a wall of black trash can outside my Manhattan apartment, I wonder: if an entire nation can have such rigorous requirements and guidelines for their residents in dealing with their waste, why cant New York City?
In 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio set a goal of zero waste going to land fills by 2030, but bit has been done given that then to satisfy that goal. New York City produces 33 million lots of trash annually, and most of it ends up in landfills. Compostable materials comprise 1.1 million lots of that waste each year, or almost a third of what we discard from our houses.
Those leftover banana peels and avocado rinds are doing more than taking up limited space in land fills. New York Citys landfilled trash produces one million lots of greenhouse gases every year, and the majority of that comes from the breakdown of waste that could have been composted. Transporting the trash and gathering to landfills outside of New York state requires trucks to drive 25 million miles a year, utilizing 11 million gallons of diesel fuel, which also creates emissions.
The city needs to consist of garden compost as one of the waste streams that New Yorkers are required to separate along with recycling. This needs to be mandated city-wide as quickly as possible, not only to reach de Blasios 2030 goal, however for the health and longevity of our city and planet.
The citys composting efforts to date have not met radiant success. Because New York started its pilot voluntary curbside composting program in 2013, it has actually yielded high costs and low returns. In 2019, the last full year the program was in operation, it cost $32.2 million and diverted only 1.4% of waste from garbage dump to garden compost collection. The program stopped community expansion in 2018 and was halted entirely in 2020 to reallocate funds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A report by the Independent Budget Office of New York exposed that the primary factor for the high cost is ineffective routes due to the low participation rates across the city, which drives up the cost per heap collected. Composting can cost the very same or less than landfilling and recycling if there is more compostable waste being collected. A required would fix the problem of low involvement.
There are some challenges to implementing a mandate. Numerous locals do not know that the city has a composting program or are not happy to alter their habits. In addition, high-rise building managers are hesitant to add another waste stream to manage, especially one that might attract vermin.
However, these barriers can be dismantled fairly easily. The city can motivate locals to alter their practices through expansion of curricula and advertising that teach residents how to properly sort their waste, along with the benefits of composting. Peace of mind should be provided to building supervisors that the compost bins provided by the city are vermin-proof, which waste will be selected up frequently enough to prevent overflow.
A garden compost facility on Staten Island. Picture: Katherine Kam
Building the system to make a compost required practical will require a great deal of resources, but ought to be thought about a worthwhile investment for the future of New York City. Whereas landfilling waste just incurs costs at a rate that increases annual as area goes out, composting can develop usable materials for profits. One million tons of compostable waste can generate $12.5 million in the sale of compost, or $22.5 million for the sale of biogas for electrical energy, according to another report by the Independent Budget Office.
Composting can generate revenue through developing carbon offsets and preventing greenhouse gas emissions. Although broadening composting will need more truck runs which generate more emissions, if practically all compostable waste were diverted, CO2 emissions would still be reduced by 657,000 heaps each year and the city would avert $28 million in carbon social expenses. Carbon social costs are the present financial worth of the future harm caused by launching one extra lot of carbon into the atmosphere– for instance, the cost of reconstructing locations at danger for flooding, or avoiding a threatened types from becoming extinct due to environment change.
Last month, I was pleased to receive an e-mail notifying me that there will be public garden compost drop-off bins in my community, however was later dissatisfied to discover out that the setup of the bins was postponed forever due to a collection concern. No waste to landfills is within our reach.
Katherine Kam is a student in Columbia Universitys Sustainability Management masters program.
New York Citys landfilled trash creates one million loads of greenhouse gases every year, and many of that comes from the breakdown of waste that might have been composted. The city can motivate citizens to alter their habits through growth of educational programs and advertising that teach citizens how to properly arrange their waste, as well as the benefits of composting. Peace of mind should be supplied to building supervisors that the garden compost bins supplied by the city are vermin-proof, and that waste will be selected up frequently enough to prevent overflow.
One million lots of compostable waste can create $12.5 million in the sale of garden compost, or $22.5 million for the sale of biogas for electrical energy, according to another report by the Independent Budget Office.
Expanding composting will need more truck runs which create more emissions, if practically all compostable waste were diverted, CO2 emissions would still be lowered by 657,000 lots per year and the city would avoid $28 million in carbon social expenses.