A brief on the borough wide residential composting pilot program.

1. Curbside Composting
in Queens
Presented by gil lopez
For the

2. Land Acknowledgment
I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I live, work and play. I have developed this presentation from within
my home in the traditional lands of the Lenape Peoples, now called Astoria, Queens. While colonization has largely extirpated the
these peoples, I recognize their continuing connection to land, water and community. I also pay respect to Elders past, present and
emerging. My intention today is that ideas presentated will help bring honor and dignity back to lands and waters of Lenapehoking.

3. Presentation Outline
Compost 101
Composting in NYC
Queens Curbside
Collection Pilot
Brown Bin Outreach
How to Participate
Q & A + Contact Info
Resource Links

4. Composting is the natural process of recycling organic matter, such as leaves and food
scraps, into a valuable fertilizer that can enrich soil and plants. Anything that grows
decomposes eventually; composting simply speeds up the process by providing an ideal
environment for bacteria, fungi, and other decomposing organisms (such as worms,
sowbugs, and nematodes) to do their work. The resulting decomposed matter, which often
ends up looking like fertile garden soil, is called compost. Fondly referred to by farmers as
“black gold,” compost is rich in nutrients and can be used for gardening, horticulture, and
agriculture.
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/composting-101#whatis

5. Greens (Nitrogen) &
Browns (Carbon)
Fresh materials relatively high
innitrogen such as raw
vegetable and fruit scraps,
coffeegrounds, fresh grass
clippings, and garden trimmings
Materials relatively high in
carbonsuch as fall leaves, wood
chips and shavings, straw,
shreddednewspaper, and woody
yard and garden trimmings.

6. Water & Air (Oxygen)
Decomposers microbes
require a layer of water
on organic particles to
move around and
metabolize dissolved
nutrients.
Decomposer microbes
“breath” so composting
is an aerobic (requires
oxygen) process.

7. Benefits of Compost
• Food scraps, food‐soiled paper and
yard waste comprise one third of all
the trash New Yorkers throw away.
• By participating, you help to:
• Keep your neighborhood clean
and healthy
• Reduce the chance of bags
breaking open (causing litter
and attracting pests)
• Make NYC more self‐sufficient
and resilient
• Reduce waste to landfills
• Create compost
• Create clean, renewable energy
• Keep your home cleaner
• Reducing greenhouse gas
emissions
• Improve soil health, recycle
nutrients, and mitigating the
impact of droughts

8. Yard Debris
Leaves, twigs and branches contain carbon which is a necessary component of the composting
process. These are not compost yet.

9. Kitchen Scraps
Inedible or unpalatable parts of the ingredients we cook with are greens/nitrogen. They are not
yet compost. By saving them and putting them in the proper bin we allow them to be composted.

10. Leftovers OR Food Waste
While this could be composted, edible food should be eaten. It puts unnecessary stress on our
waste infrastructure when we add resources that could nourish people into the waste stream.

14. The following comes from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (www.ilsr.org), a national
nonprofit organization working to strengthen local economies, and redirect waste into local
recycling, composting, and reuse industries. It is reprinted here with permission.

15. Visit https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/ to see the original content.
Source Reduction

16. Visit https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/ to see the original content.
Edible Food Rescue

17. Visit https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/ to see the original content.
Edible Food Rescue

20. Visit https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/ to see the original content.
Home Composting

21. Visit https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/ to see the original content.
Home Composting

22. Visit https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/ to see the original content.
Small-Scale, Decentralized

23. Visit https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/ to see the original content.
Small-Scale, Decentralized

24. Visit https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/ to see the original content.
Medium-Small, Locally-Based

25. Visit https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/ to see the original content.
Medium-Small, Locally-Based

26. Visit https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/ to see the original content.
Central Composting or Anaerobic Digestion

27. Visit https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/ to see the original content.
Central Composting or Anaerobic Digestion

28. NYC Smart Bins
NYC Smart Bins are being piloted
in Astoria and Lower Manhattan.
Bins are open 24/7
Use RFID technology to allow
users to open them with a key
card or digital app.
Bins will be emptied on a regular
basis and the scraps at DSNY
facilities.
To participate, call 311 to request
a key card

29. Visit https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/ to see the original content.
Mixed Waste Treatment

30. Visit https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/ to see the original content.
Mixed Waste Treatment

31. Visit https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/ to see the original content.
Landfill and Incineration
It also stinks and attracts rodents

32. Visit https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/ to see the original content.
Landfill and Incineration
It also stinks and attracts rodents

33. - Farm Equipment Association of
Minnesota and South Dakota
Despite all our accomplishments,
we owe our existence to a 6" layer
of topsoil and the fact it rains.

34. Queens Brown
Bin Curbside
Collection Pilot
In order for composting to be equitable and
accessible to all, everyone must be served. Previous
pilot programs have focused on neighborhoods with
single family homes and lower population densities.
This led to harmful inequalities across the class
divide.
The new program offers the same service equally to
every Queens resident.
Fair, equitable and accessable compost service is the
foundation towards true environmental and waste
justice.

35. Brown Bin Queens Pilot
Curbside Composting service
began in October 2022 for all
residential buildings in Queens!
Includes single family homes,
small apartment buildings, and
multi-unit residential buildings.
Your compost collection day will
be the same as your recycling day.
No impact to regular trash or
recycling collection service.

36. Brown Bin Queens Pilot
Weekly collection of leaf and yard
waste, food scraps, and food-
soiled paper products. These
materials are turned into compost
or renewable energy.
Also includes NYCHA residents,
who may visit nyc.gov/
QueensCompostingNYCHA or email
sustainability@nycha.nyc.gov to
express interest.
Participating is voluntary—no
fines at this time.

37. Setting Out Your Brown Bin
Before placing the bin at the curb,
tiethe liner closed.
Put additional leaf and yard waste
in abin or bag and set out with
your brownbin on collection day.
Bundle smallbranches with twine.
Need a bin? Use any bin (max: 55
gallons) with a secure lid and
label binwith a free Composting
Bin Decal — order at nyc.gov/
CompostingBinDecal

38. Get a Free Brown Bin
Unfortunately the brown bin
request deadline a has passed.
You can use any bin (max: 55
gallons) with a secure lid and
label binwith a free Composting
Bin Decal — order at nyc.gov/
CompostingBinDecal
Check our local bakery or
grocery store for a food grade
5-gallon bucket they are getting
rid of.

39. What to Compost

40. Leaf + Yard Waste
Leaf and yard waste: Separate from
your trash and place at the curb in:
Clear plastic bag.
Paper Lawn & Leaf bag.
DSNY compost bin (brown bin)
Your own bin (max size 25cgallons)
labeled with ac“Compost Bin”
decal.
Bundles (for branches).

41. What to NOT to Compost

42. Easy as 1, 2, 3

43. For Property Owners &
Building Management
Notify residents about:
When collection starts
What they can put in the bin
How tenants can collect and store food
waste before bringing to a bin
Where bins will be located
DSNY can provide:
Additional educational materials and
signage, in other languages on request.
In-person or virtual outreach to your
building.
Go to https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/dsny/
site/contact/event-participation-request to
request an event at your building!

44. For Property Owners &
Building Management

45. Brown Bin Building Setup
1. Determine the best location for your bin(s)
• Existing indoor or outdoor recycling
areas.
• Trash room or next to trash chutes.
• Outside courtyard or other accessible
space.
2. Post educational signage wherever
possible.
3. Line the bin with a bag.
4. Write your address on the bin.

46. Curbside Composting
Outreach Team
Promoting awareness of New York City’s efforts
to have all residents save their food scraps at
home and put them in a special compost bin for
pick-up once a week by Sanitation.
Through tabling events, webinars for
community groups, door-to-door home
canvassing, free compost give-aways,
providing street tree care sessions, and more.
The Outreach Team is now focused on
engaging, educating, informing and prepping
everyone in Queens on the new services they’ll
be receiving as this new program rolls out.
The outreach Team previously concentrated on
engaging Community Districts 1, 2, 6, 7 in
Brooklyn, 6 and 7 in Manhattan and 8 in the
Bronx, which also have Brown Bin service.

48. DSNY Finished Compost
40-lb bags are distributed
during compost giveback events
run by DSNY
GreenThumb gardeners can
request bags or a pallet of
finished compost

49. Common Misconceptions

50. Brown Bin Winter Pause
3-month service pause
for DSNY snow operations
Curbside compost service
suspended starting late
December
Compost Service will
resume March 2023

51. NYC Compost Project
Rebuilding Our Soil, Neighborhood by Neighborhood
Rebuilding our soil,
neighborhood
by neighborhood.
nyc.gov/compostproject
NYCzerowaste
Save for reference — or recycle it!
Printed on recycled paper, of course. CP-BROCH: NYC CP BROCHURE 11.16
arn about
mposting.
n tables and give public
cal events. Contact us
C Compost Project to
about composting at
sting.
asses
kers of all ages
Contact your local
ect host site for
ter
ram
mposting course trains a
rested New Yorkers every
aintain, and revitalize
sting projects across all
our website to apply.
NYC Compost Project
programs are carried out by staff funded
by the Department of Sanitation and hosted by
partner organizations in each borough.
Big Reuse
bigreuse.org/compost
compost@bigreuse.org | 718.777.0132 x7030
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
bbg.org/compost
compost@bbg.org | 718.623.7290
Earth Matter NY
earthmatter.org
contact@earthmatter.org
Lower East Side Ecology Center
lesecologycenter.org
info@lesecologycenter.org | 212.477.3155
Queens Botanical Garden
queensbotanical.org/compost
compost@queensbotanical.org | 718.539.5296
Snug Harbor Cultural Center &
Botanical Garden
snug-harbor.org/compost
compost@snug-harbor.org | 718.425.3558
The New York Botanical Garden
nybg.org/compost
compost@nybg.org | 718.817.8543
General Information
nyc.gov/compostproject
nyccompostproject@dsny.nyc.gov
R
b
Save for reference — or recycle it!
Printed on recycled paper, of course. CP-BROCH: NYC CP BROCHURE 11.16
composting.
Events
We host information tables and give public
presentations at local events. Contact us
if you’d like the NYC Compost Project to
provide information about composting at
an event you’re hosting.
Workshops & classes
We teach New Yorkers of all ages
about composting. Contact your local
NYC Compost Project host site for
class schedules.
Master Composter
Certificate Program
This advanced composting course trains a
select group of interested New Yorkers every
year to develop, maintain, and revitalize
community composting projects across all
five boroughs. Visit our website to apply.
partner organizations in each borough.
Big Reuse
bigreuse.org/compost
compost@bigreuse.org | 718.777.0132 x7030
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
bbg.org/compost
compost@bbg.org | 718.623.7290
Earth Matter NY
earthmatter.org
contact@earthmatter.org
Lower East Side Ecology Center
lesecologycenter.org
info@lesecologycenter.org | 212.477.3155
Queens Botanical Garden
queensbotanical.org/compost
compost@queensbotanical.org | 718.539.5296
Snug Harbor Cultural Center &
Botanical Garden
snug-harbor.org/compost
compost@snug-harbor.org | 718.425.3558
The New York Botanical Garden
nybg.org/compost
compost@nybg.org | 718.817.8543
General Information
nyc.gov/compostproject
nyccompostproject@dsny.nyc.gov

52. Food Scrap Drop-Offs (FSDO)
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/dsny/site/services/food-scraps-and-yard-waste-page/nyc-food-scrap-drop-off-locations

53. Queens Processing Sites
Queens Botanical Garden
Big Reuse, Queensbridge

54. NYC Compost Project
Finished Compost
Given to local community
gardeners, street tree stewards,
NYC Parks managers, schools
and anyone else doing public
greening
Seasonal giveback events at
select Food Scrap Drop-offs
2-lb bags given away at public
events to promote participation
in composting programs

55. - ‘The Complete Book of Composting’ Rodale Books, 1971
Composting is not new. neither in theory nor practice
are the basic tenets of returning organic matter to the
soil revolutionary or even of comparatively recent
vintage. The pages of history are filled with
empathetic evidence that nothing is more fundamental
to man's prosperity -- to civilization itself -- than a
lasting, productive agriculture. This, the past proves,
can stem only from heeding the most primary of
Nature's laws -- the law of return, the very cycle of life.
Wherever a nation has adhered to this principle, there
alone has a people survived and the land flourished.
Where it has been violated and abused, whether
through ignorance or mistaken custom, there has a
race perished, a metropolis fallen to ruins, and
country's soil withered and blown to sterile desert.”

56. Questions & Answers
Ask us how you can help spread the word and get your neighbors composting
https://www.slideshare.net/glopezsez
Find me on social media
@glopezsez
@BigReuse
Questions/Comments
glopezsez@gmail.com

57. Resources
NYC Compost Project https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/dsny/site/our-work/reduce-
reuse-recycle/community-composting
FSDO Map https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/dsny/site/services/food-scraps-and-
yard-waste-page/nyc-food-scrap-drop-off-locations
Request or download educational materials and signage https://dsny.force.com/
recyclingmaterialsrequest/s/?language=en_US
Request an outreach event for your constituents https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/
dsny/site/contact/event-participation-request
ILSR Food Waste Hierarchy https://ilsr.org/food-waste-hierarchy/
NRDC Composting 101 https://www.nrdc.org/stories/composting-101#whatis