New York City’s composting program is set to significantly expand this week, as 2.6 million people in Brooklyn now have a way to dispose of food scraps and yard waste after city collection in the borough started Monday.
The largest city in the U.S. is implementing a program that will hopefully get all of its 8.8 million residents on board with diverting compostable waste from the landfill: residents of Queens got access to the program this spring, and composting will be available in the Bronx, Staten Island, and Manhattan next year.
While New Yorkers are currently required to separate yard waste from regular trash, an ambitious bill passed by the City Council earlier this summer would make it mandatory for all New Yorkers to also separate their food waste from their trash by 2025.
“I think it’s going to become one of the hallmarks of modern cities,” New York City sanitation commissioner Jessica Tisch told Axios.
(Gothamist, Axios, New York Times $, InsideClimate News, Fast Company)