Composting is now mandatory in New York City. This, in theory, is an amazing step toward soil health, reduced methane emissions, and better water quality. But as a loud and proud composter who lives in New York City, I’ve heard many excuses for why people don’t compost themselves, and it often astounds me how weak these arguments can be.
“I just eat everything I cook, so I don’t really have food that goes to waste.”
“I don’t cook much, so I don’t have that many food scraps.”
“I don’t want to attract bugs.”
“There’s nowhere to drop it off near me.”
While I understand that this is not a problem solely with/for individuals, I’ve stopped being surprised when I offer logical solutions to these conundrums (storing compost in a freezer, a helpful composting app, a counterpoint that you are not eating your banana peels), and still see no change in willingness to compost when it is such an easy and beneficial thing to do.
The buzz around this topic has swarmed since New York City began slowly rolling out a mandatory composting program in October 2024, though the city has only begun enforcing this mandate on April 1st of this year. A significant goal of this program is to make composting not only mandatory, but accessible. Prior to the mandate, the main options for compost drop off in the city were farmers markets and city-managed collection bins with a smartphone app required to unlock them. Now, residential buildings are required to have compost bins, making it far easier for everyone to participate.
But already this mandate has been met with extreme pushback from landlords and building owners, who are held responsible for the fines if their tenants don’t comply with the new composting rules. And many of these complaints are completely valid. Homeowners have reported compost bins being stolen, as well as irregular pickups that lead to rotting food that attracts rats. Residents note that they don’t have room in their fridge or freezer for food scraps.
New York City especially is already uniquely positioned for complaints: the tiny apartments, the vulnerability to bugs and rodents, and its residents’ quintessential predisposition to put up a fight.
But we know how important composting is, and what a huge impact it would have if more people did it. Composting reduces greenhouse gas emissions, improves soil health, protects water quality, and diverts waste from landfills. In 2017, 34% of New York City’s waste was comprised of organic material that could have been composted.
We also know that mandating something means that, plain and simple, more people will do it. This has been the case in other cities: San Francisco, for example, implemented mandatory composting in 2009, and in just two years was able to divert 78% of its waste away from landfills.
According to the NRDC, “The highest priority food waste strategy should be to prevent food from being wasted in the first place, but composting food scraps is also essential: it reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills or incinerators, thereby helping avoid the potent greenhouse gas emissions generated by decomposing food in landfills, and also provides alternatives to synthetic fertilizers and soil amendments.”
Additionally, though counterintuitive, composting can actually help combat pests like rats and cockroaches when executed properly. This is because composting ensures that food scraps are in a locked airtight bin instead of being mixed in with the rest of the trash, which limits pests’ access.
Composting in general lacks the sexy appeal of paper straws and bamboo yoga mats. But often what stands to reduce your carbon footprint the most is not something you can buy, but something that makes your life a little more inconvenient: public transit, a farmers market, a compost bin.
If you take one thing away from this article, let it be this: composting is probably not as hard or as gross or as inconvenient as you think, and making this one small change really does stand to make a huge difference for the planet and everyone on it. Mandatory composting may not be a perfect solution, but it’s an encouraging start in getting more food waste out of landfills and back into the earth where it belongs.
Be curious!
- Check out the EPA’s resources for composting in various settings and types of homes
- Learn more about NYC’s compost education programs
- Look for compost drop off sites in your local area
- Make sure you’re clear on what you can compost in your area. Some cities have different rules and materials they can accept.
Photo by Nareeta Martin via Unplash
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