New York City is making people compost — or pay up

Real estate owners and real estate owners in New York City can now be fined $ 25 or more if the population of banana peel is found in the trash. As of April 1, all New York residents must separate organic waste-including food scraps and a boiled leaf in the food (such as empty pizza boxes), leaves and yard waste-from the rest of the trash, similar to how to customize minerals, glass, paper and plastic for recycling.

This is the way the city encourages – or in reality, participating in its pre -fertilizer program, where food waste is collected weekly by the sewage department, such as garbage and recycling. The mandatory fertilization is still relatively new in New York City; The program only It was put in all the five town Late last year.

The best use of food, of course, is to feed people. When you can’t do that, Fertility is one tool to help reduce emissions From organic waste – Methane It was released as a food decomposition in waste burials is the pioneer Global warming driver. As a whole, the United States A lot of food is lost, as happened about 10 years agoDespite an ambitious situation The goal of cutting food waste is half.

It will take some time to get the New York population – and effort. When it comes to converting food waste from waste burials by fertilizing them instead, New York is backward behind Other large American cities. The city recovered Less than 5 percent From the organic waste of qualified families in the fiscal year 2024. The fines announced this month are designed to enhance compliance; In the first week of April, the Ministry of Sanitation in New York City, or DSNY, He issued nearly 2000 tickets Because of its failure to separate the membership.

“This is only half of the story: we have taken 2.5 million pounds of compant materials last week,” said DSNY.

But critics say that the city should focus more on educating the population on the benefits of fertilization.

“What worries me is that instead of communicating, we focus on the expression of fear.” During the Covid-19s, Reyes and his partner began an effort run by volunteers in Astoria, Queens, to collect food waste in the neighborhood. He described the rate of organic waste recovery in the city before the start of fines as “very shameful”.

The dull participation in the city’s fertilization program may be a function of time – Seattle, for example, The membership was banned in garbage 10 years ago. In San Francisco, Fertilization has been mandatory since 2009.

However, experts say the strengthening of a group of food waste in New York, which is Metropolis with more than 8 million people, will also get dedicated education and communication.

“I would like to say that the largest tool you use is education,” said Joseph Piasiki, Public Affairs and Policy Coordinator at the Environmental Department of San Francisco. He stated that the organic transport in the city is notifying the population and companies of potential mixtures before their strangeness.

“They will communicate, our section will continue, we will call, and we will put the shoes on the floor to go, like going physically, there, and how can we help you be successful?” Piaasecki said.

In a preliminary budget hearing last month, DSNY said that she sent city correspondents about fertilization fines; The administration also meets with each community council and information councils for residents and real estate managers to better educate the public about the program. Piaasecki stressed that the San Francisco fertilization program should not serve as a direct comparison in New York. About 800,000 people live in San Francisco, almost the population of New York City. It also covers a much smaller geographical area: about 50 square miles compared to slightly more than 300. The compulsory palace fertilizer program was released Two years ago.

But in addition to the DSNY fertilizer problems is that the agency has failed to reassure critics of the fertilization program, who argue that the city misleads the population about what is happening for food collisions with the creation of the issue of environmental justice as well.

As of now, DSNY food waste is usually ended in a place: a fertilizer attachment on Statin Island or a wastewater treatment plant on the bridge and Quinz edge. But last year, DSNY mentioned that Five foods that were actually collected to the fertilization facility. The rest is sent to the wastewater treatment factory in Brooklyn neighborhood in Green Point. (He asked the updated numbers, Graniani said that the administration had no accurate collapse, as the numbers often fluctuate.)

In the wastewater treatment factory, organic waste is mixed with wastewater sludge and is divided into anaerobic digestion, where methane and other gases are produced. This cocktail of gases – known as the name Vital -It can then provide multiple purposes: it can be used on the site to run the facility itself, or it can be improved Renewed natural gas and Used to heat homes. Instead, it was the New York City Factory The local population exploded To ignite from the excess methane.

The residue of solid materials can be used from this process – known as digestion – technically to enhance soil. However, defenders are concerned that it may be very low quality so that it cannot be used for farmers and gardeners because it was originally mixed with the city’s wastewater, which means that it may eventually end in waste burials as well. (Request to comment, Gragnani Grist face to the New York State Environmental Protection, which runs digestion.)

In Los Angeles, the city Guidelines about the Curbside Organics collection Clearly about where it is going: food scraps and yard waste collected are converted into a fertilizer used by farmers to grow organic products. In San Francisco, according to Piaasecki, some organic fertilizer created by scraps is Then it is used by noble Wadi Valley factories. He added that this may be a moment for “New York to develop this type of story”, especially if the fertilizer from the city eventually helps rural societies throughout the state.

Currently, DSNY may have full hands, as it answers critics who say that anaerobic digestion increases the consolidation of the fossil fuel industry at a time when cities instead need carbon removal.

For example, when biological gas is converted into what is known as renewable natural gas then It is granted to the local facilities company for freeIt is “creating an incentive to rebuild each [gas] Eric Goldstein, Environmental Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the pipes and made investments in this infrastructure of fossil fuel.

He asked to respond to these criticisms, Jarajenani, the DSNY press secretary, said, “Can” the local environmental defenders “that I spoke with preferred to use advanced gases to heat homes and companies? Unfortunately, their speech can be crowned and send more food and waste in the yard in methane in the distant province.”

Marcel R. said. Howard, director of the waste program in the global alliance of alternatives to alternatives, anaerobic digest can play an important role in food waste reduction programs. But he added that “it must be implemented within the frameworks of zero work and social justice to prevent environmental harm and determine the priorities of society’s needs.”

In the end, New York City did it. Reyes said he wanted to see “real and legal” communication from DSNY about the reason for separating food waste issues. “I am a huge supporter of the municipal organic recovery that already works,” he said. This means that society actually buys the idea of ​​taking food from waste burials and ensuring environmental justice issues – such as the ignition of methane in a populated neighborhood – in this process.

He added: “This is, as I think, more acceptable and more dignified solutions than the chaos we have in New York City.”