Windsor Terrace is on the cutting edge of sustainability in New York City. Next month, you will be the first neighborhood in Brooklyn to get the City’s new curbside compost collection program.
Organic waste – including food scraps, food-soiled paper, and yard trimmings – accounts for a third of all garbage created in New York City. Once collected, organic waste is turned into renewable energy or compost, which is used to fertilize community gardens, school yards, parks, and more—literally giving back to the community.
Organics collection will begin the week of October 7th. Participation in the pilot program is completely voluntary—and easy. Here is a quick breakdown:
- Residential buildings will receive a free starter kit from the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) with a brown bin and a small kitchen container (which you can keep on the countertop, in the freezer, etc). Starter kits will be delivered starting September 27.
- Food scraps can be put in the kitchen container, and then emptied into the brown bin along with leaves and yard trimmings for curbside collection.
- Sanitation will reach out to larger buildings to determine the appropriate number of brown bins needed.
- The brown bins Sanitation provides are specially designed to keep rodents and raccoons out.
- Organic waste pick-up is on your normal recycling day (see map below).
- For more information, visit nyc.gov/organics or call the Composting Hotline: 212-437-4646.
Food scraps are a big deal. We spend hundreds of millions of dollars to export our garbage when about one-third of our waste is compostable. If the composting program in Windsor Terrace is successful, then the City will be able to bring it to other neighborhoods.
So I hope you participate!
If you have questions about how the program works, or what you need to do, please come to the Community Board 7 meeting with Department of Sanitation on Thursday, October 3 at 6:30 pm, at the International Baptist Church (312 Coney Island Avenue, entrance on Caton Place).
The urgency of action on climate change – and the importance of thinking globally and acting locally – has never been more apparent. The expansion of the composting program provides an opportunity to take meaningful action, and saves us money at the same time. I hope you will consider taking part.
Brad
