Wasted Potential

In my post, Shooting for the Stars, I mentioned that roughly 1 million tons of the city’s annual waste stream consists of food scraps and other organic material that could be composted.  OK, but how much of that, I wondered, was actually composted?  I didn’t have the answer then, but I do now.  According to the New York City Department of Sanitation, the city composts between 15,000 and 30,000 tons per year of organics via leaf, Christmas tree, and spring yard waste collections.  It produces about 30,000 cubic yards of compost annually. 

So, let’s take a step back.  New York City composts about 1.5% to 3% of what it could be composting.  I think New Yorkers can do much better than that.  Why not shoot for getting the composting rate to match the city’s recycling rate of 16.5%.  New Yorkers can do it.  Why not give it a shot?

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