Citywide Composting: Heavy Lift for Real Estate, New Yorkers

Composting is environmentally friendly, cuts down rats’ food supply, slashes landfill expenses and reduces carbon emissions — in a perfect world. Which New York City will never be.

It is so far from perfect, in fact, that the citywide program launched this week to turn food waste into dirt is likely to fail, especially at apartment buildings. Multifamily owners will pay the price.

Having composted for years, I hope I am wrong. Hope, however, is not a strategy. Data and anecdotal observations show that the pilot programs for composting have flopped. It is hard to see how expanding them will work.

This is not to say that New Yorkers have any excuse not to compost. Putting all food waste in a covered bin deters roaches and rodents, and does not stink up a home. Separating non-putrescible waste (which has no odor and doesn’t rot) makes for a cleaner home and takes little effort.

In theory, therefore, composting could work in New York City. But so far it hasn’t.

The city first launched composting programs where they were most likely to succeed: in Brownstone Brooklyn neighborhoods with high-earning, well educated, pro-environment liberals and few large buildings. Free brown bins — one for the curb, one for inside the home — were handed out to every residence.

Still, most of the yuppies did not compost. They just could not be bothered.

Trucks sent out for compost would fly through Park Slope, completing their routes well ahead of schedule because compost bins put out for collection were rarer than parking spots. It was an inefficient use of both vehicles and manpower.

One of the many lessons learned was that without fines, widespread adoption was a pipe dream. Penalties would have helped, but political will for them was lacking. Fines haven’t inspired many people to recycle properly since that program went curbside in 1989, but homeowners at least made an effort. Tenants, on the other hand, didn’t have to.

The Department of Sanitation tried another composting pilot program, in Queens. The results were best in single-family neighborhoods with lawns, because people could put yard waste into the brown bins. But only a third of city residents are owners, and just a small fraction of owners have yards.

Yet the agency and the City Council called it a success and made it citywide.

The industry’s primary group is on board, but its doubts are evident.

The Real Estate Board of New York said in a statement that organic waste collection is essential for the city to achieve its zero-waste goal, which it supports. But for the citywide program to succeed, REBNY said, Sanitation needs sufficient staffing and aggressive education programs to get people to separate their food waste.

What REBNY did not say is that Sanitation has never had an aggressive education program and is unlikely to get more staffing. If short-staffed divisions resort to throwing food waste in with the regular garbage, as some New Yorkers believe they routinely do, residents will lose faith and stop separating. (Sanitation insists its crews don’t cheat.)

REBNY did make this crucial point: “Organic waste recycling is a shared responsibility that extends beyond building owners alone.”

Yet only owners are held responsible. Getting 5 million tenants to compost is beyond the city’s control. Landlords fear it will be beyond their control as well.

“Composting will require a major level of cooperation from the residents of a multifamily building,” Ann Korchak, board president of Small Property Owners of New York, commented as part of the rulemaking process. “It will involve a huge learning curve and behavioral changes. The residents in my building who still won’t sort paper, cardboard, glass, and aluminum products are not likely to begin composting.”

Several times a week, her building staff sorts through tenants’ trash and pulls out recyclables. Next year, after a grace period ends, they will have to remove the food, too, or Korchak could be fined. Tenants are never fined because how would anyone know which apartment that chicken bone came from?

“The task of physically removing food waste from tenants’ trash bags and adding it to the composting waste bin will be messy, unsanitary, and simply gross,” Korchak testified.

Many multifamily buildings have a single trash chute, which tenants are likely to use for food and regular waste alike. Each building is going to have to figure out how to compost with any semblance of efficiency.

For landlords who are struggling to get tenants to pay rent, keep the noise down, not cause toilet backups or otherwise cause trouble, composting will be low on the priority list.