Where are all the brown bins on pick-up day?
With Community Composting ending one might think this could increase participation in curbside composting. However, if you live in a building where the landlord doesn’t wish to participate this is not an option.
When curbside composting came to Brooklyn in October 2023, separating leaf and yard waste from household garbage and separating food waste and food-soiled paper from trash became mandatory. However, it seems by the lack of brown bins curbed some define ‘mandatory’ as ‘wait until it’s enforced’.
“The warning period for Brooklyn (and all boroughs as service expands) runs through Spring 2025. Starting Spring 2025, ALL NYC residents will be subject to fines,” states the curbside-composting-brooklyn webpage on the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) site.
On April 17, I decided to count brown bins on set-out night during an evening stroll through my neighborhood to see how many are participating in curbside composting. According to my area’s collection schedule the compost pick-up day is Thursday, so residents are asked to set out their bins from 6 p.m. to midnight the night before. I counted brown bins amongst the other trash and recycling that was curbed, and looked for brown bins in a building’s bin area. In twelve blocks, I counted five brown bins out, and four brown bins belonging to a building but not set out at the curb (yet?).
This is not a scientific study. It is one randomly collected data sample.
A research study on curbside composting was published in BioCycle on March 11, 2024 by Samantha MacBride, PhD. She worked on the DSNY’s curbside recycling and organics programs for over two decades, and she teaches urban environmentalism, public management, and program evaluation at Baruch College’s Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. Among the findings was, “Queens’s capture rates have declined over the past 10 years, as has the quantity per household of organics that are set at the curb.” The study hopes to call attention to the facts and obstacles in order to find solutions to enable curbside composting to succeed.
To my recollection I don’t see many brown bins out on Wednesday nights or early Thursday mornings since curbside compost began in my area. I know landlords who refuse to participate, one vehemently so. Their reasons are: worries about attracting vermin, not enough space to store it before pick-up time, what to do if it’s not picked up, bad smell, etc.
However, refusing to composting doesn’t solve smell or vermin fears as food that could be composted would then go in with the rest of the trash. According to the DSNY, “composting helps reduce rats and other pests.” The DSNY were giving out compost bins with vermin proof lids that locked beginning when curbside composting was on a voluntary sign up basis. This giveaway continued through to shortly after curbside composting became available in Brooklyn. Currently, there is no giveaway, but a labeled bin with a secure lid that is up to 55 gallons can be used. DSNY asks that you to line the bin with any bag (paper or clear plastic) to help keep it clean.
The Greenline 