Composting should be mandatory in New York City

Composting should be mandatory in New York City

In Japan, all residents are responsible for sorting their garbage into several waste streams. They need to paste their names and addresses on the transparent garbage bags so that they can easily identify the items in the garbage bags. If anything is incorrectly sorted, they will return their bag and be told to sort the garbage correctly.This strict system has resulted in approximately 99% of municipal waste in Japan is transferred from landfills.

When I walked through a wall of black trash bags outside a Manhattan apartment building, I wondered: If the entire country can set such strict standards and rules for citizens to dispose of garbage, why can’t New York City?

In 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio set the goal of zero waste to landfill by 2030, but since then, few steps have been taken to achieve that goal.New York City production 33 million tons of garbage per year, Most of which end up in landfills.Compostable material composition 1.1 million tons The garbage that is wasted every year, or nearly one-third of the garbage we throw away from our homes.

The remaining banana and avocado peels not only take up the limited space of the landfill.Landfill waste generation in New York City One million tons of greenhouse gases are produced every year, Most of which comes from the decomposition of waste that could have been composted.Truck driving is required to collect garbage and transport it to a landfill outside of New York State Drives 25 million miles per year and uses 11 million gallons of diesel, Which will also generate emissions.

New York City must list compost as one of the waste streams that New Yorkers must separate when recycling. This needs to be enforced across the city as soon as possible, not only to achieve De Blasio’s 2030 goals, but also for the health and longevity of our city and the planet.

So far, the city’s composting work has not been a huge success. Since New York began piloting the voluntary roadside composting program in 2013, it has produced high costs and low returns.exist 2019 yearIn the last year of the program’s operation, at a cost of US$32.2 million, only 1.4% of the waste was transferred from landfills to compost collection. The program stopped community expansion in 2018 and completely stopped in 2020 to redistribute funds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, a report The Independent Budget Office of New York revealed that the main reason for the high cost is the low efficiency of the route due to the low participation rate of the entire city, thereby pushing up the cost per ton of collection. If more compostable waste is collected, the cost of composting may be the same as or lower than the cost of landfilling and recycling. Authorization will solve the problem of low participation rates.

There are some challenges in carrying out the task. Many residents are unaware that the city has a composting plan or are unwilling to change their habits. In addition, high-rise building managers are reluctant to add another waste stream for management, especially the waste stream that may attract pests.

However, these obstacles can be removed relatively easily. The city can encourage residents to change their habits by expanding educational programs and advertisements, teaching residents how to properly sort garbage and the benefits of composting. The building managers must be assured that the compost bins provided by the city are insect-proof and that the garbage will be picked up frequently to avoid overflow.

Composting facility on Staten Island. Photo: Katherine Kam

Establishing a system to make composting directives feasible will require significant resources, but should be seen as a valuable investment in the future of New York City. The cost of landfilling waste will only increase year by year as space runs out, and composting can create usable materials to earn income.According to another researcher, 1 million tons of compostable waste can be sold for US$12.5 million through compost sales, or US$22.5 million for sales of biogas power generation. report By the independent budget office.

In addition, composting can generate income by generating carbon offsets and avoiding greenhouse gas emissions.Although expanding composting will require more truck operations, which will generate more emissions, if almost all compostable waste is diverted, carbon dioxide emissions will still be reduced 657,000 tons/year The city will avoid US$28 million in carbon social costsThe social cost of carbon refers to the current monetary value of the future harm caused by an additional ton of carbon released into the atmosphere—for example, the cost of rebuilding an area at risk of flooding, or the cost of preventing endangered species from extinction due to climate change.

Last month, I was very happy to receive an email informing me that there will be a public compost bin nearby, but I was disappointed to find that the installation of the bin was delayed indefinitely due to collection problems. Nevertheless, I am very happy to see a solution for collecting compost at work, even if progress is slow. A zero waste landfill is within reach. We just need to work harder for this.

Katherine Kam is a student at Columbia University Sustainability Management Master’s courses.