You are reading

Queens Borough President Calls for the Return of City’s Composting Service

Photo courtesy of borough president’s office

Jan. 16, 2023 By Bill Parry

When Mayor Eric Adams came to Flushing Meadows Corona Park in August to announce that Queens had been selected for the launch of the nation’s largest curbside composting program starting in October, the first time that an entire borough would receive the service, few could have imagined how wildly successful the program would be.

Over the first three months of the initiative, Queens kept 12.7 million pounds of waste out of the landfill and southeast Queens, which had never had the curbside composting service before, diverted more material than the other seven districts combined.

But just as the borough was getting its composting groove back, the Department of Sanitation announced the program would be put on hold for the winter saying the borough was selected for the pilot because it is home to 41 percent of New York City’s street trees and there is not much yard waste in wintertime.

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards sent a letter to DSNY Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Jan. 5 praising the program and advocating for the pause to be lifted.

“The success of the initiative over its first six weeks, beginning with its launch in October 2022, has been stunning. According to DSNY data, 5.7 million pounds of organic waste being collected, with a 274 percent increase from week one to week six,” Richards wrote.

“Furthermore, a combined 1.6 million pounds of waste have been collected just from Community Districts 12 and 13 in southeast Queens — historically disadvantaged communities that have often received fewer resources from our city. This is an indisputable triumph we should be capitalizing on and continuing, not suspending.”

Richards added that by encouraging residents at civic meetings, through community giveaways and on social media to participate in composting, their participation in the program is being reinforced and rewarded, becoming part of the borough’s culture of sustainability.

“The Queens curbside organics program is an initiative my office deeply values and believes in,” Richards concluded. “It is with pride in the program that I request that the suspension be lifted, allowing collection to continue without further interruption.”

DSNY reviewed the borough president’s letter, but the winter hiatus will continue until the curbside composting service returns on March 27.

“The borough president has been a fantastic partner in the Queens composting program, and we will definitely take his feedback into account for next year,” a DSNY spokesman told QNS.

This story was originally published by QNS

email the author: [email protected]
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Long Island ‘predator’ indicted on sex trafficking charges for forcing two victims into prostitution using violence, tattoos to intimidate them: DA

Mar. 29, 2023 By Bill Parry

A Long Island man was indicted on sex trafficking charges and faces up to 50 years in prison for allegedly forcing two women to engage in prostitution and assaulting and robbing them while weaponizing personalized tattoos as a twisted form of branding his victims, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced on March 29.

Met Council leader warns of ‘catastrophe’ for low-income families in Queens due to lack of pandemic-era federal food aid

Mar. 28, 2023 By Bill Parry

As an accomplished legislator, law professor and media personality with broad experience in government and not-for-profit organizations, Met Council CEO and executive director David Greenfield is well aware of the power of words. With Passover arriving on Wednesday, April 5, and with federal pandemic food assistance no longer available to low-income families in Queens, the leader of the nation’s largest Jewish charity organization warned of a coming “catastrophe” and called for the city to step up to provide $13 million in emergency funding for pantries to help New Yorkers facing food insecurity and elevated costs of living in the borough.

Pair of Queens community organizations will activate public spaces to celebrate local cultures

Two Queens community organizations are among an inaugural cohort of five groups citywide that will lead new projects to celebrate local cultures and histories in public spaces under a new initiative called The Local Center in a partnership between Urban Design Forum and the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development (ANHD).

At a time when New York is grappling with an uneven pandemic recovery and as displacement looms large for communities and neighborhoods across the five boroughs, this new endeavor will convene interdisciplinary teams to transform and activate the shared spaces where cultural traditions flourish — and importantly, center the community visions and leadership that is too often left out of the process.