NYC Organics Program Put on Hold

Expansion of New York City's organics collection program has been put on hold because not enough people are participating in it.

Five years ago, Mayor Bill de Blasio introduced a pilot program in the hopes of collecting hundreds of thousands of tons of the city’s food scraps and yard waste to be turned into compost, gas or electricity. But the program has stalled because not enough people are separating their table scraps, spoiled meat and rotten vegetables.

De Blasio set a goal of sending zero waste to landfills by 2030, and that depends on residents and businesses separating their organic waste, which currently makes up a third of the trash that ends up in landfills. However, since not enough people use the service, the city's trucks devoted to such waste are not filled, increasing the costs per ton.

ABC News has more details:

New Yorkers are so far turning up their noses at the city's ambitious organics collection program, which has stalled because not enough people are participating in the often-smelly chore of separating out all those table scraps, spoiled meat, rotten vegetables and cut grass.

Mayor Bill de Blasio introduced his pilot program five years ago, hoping hundreds of thousands of tons of the city's leftovers and yard waste would be churning their way through the system by now to be turned into compost, gas or electricity.

Related:Community Food Waste Programs Make Good Fit for Farmers’ Markets

But expansion has been put on hold because not enough people are pitching in to make it cost-effective. The city collected only about 13,000 tons from residents last year and found that the 3.5 million people currently in the voluntary program are only separating 10.6 percent of their potential scraps.

Read the full article here.