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QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, November 30, 2023 Page 18
C M SQ page 18 Y K
Less compost, more methane gas and landfill loom City-funded food-scrap programs face potential shutdown with budget cuts by Samantha Maldonado
“We need soil and we viously reported, that projdon’t need to be flaring off ect exper ienced epic food waste. It’s graying This article was originally pub- delays. For almost a decade instead of greening the lished on Nov. 28 at 5:00 a.m. EDT a s t he project st alled , city,” she said. excess methane was burned by THE CITY The digestion process at The city Department of Sanita- off instead. the Newtown Creek plant On Staten Island, food tion proposal to eliminate funding also produces solids in for community composting means scraps in Smart Bins get addition to the gas. most food waste collected through composted at the DSNY’s According to the DEP, less public programs will become gas facility there. In the other than half of those solids are boroughs, New Yorkers or landfill, not compost. converted into a nutrientUnder proposed budget cuts as must compost their organic rich fertilizer for soil. The part of a wider agenda to trim city waste themselves or pay for rest gets landfilled. spending, community compost services to do it for them But even though most of organizations — GrowNYC, the — unless they bring their the curbside and smart bin Lower East Side Ecology Center, scraps to community commaterial doesn’t actually get BIG Reuse and Earth Matter, as post drop-off sites. composted, getting New “There is space for both well as the four botanical gardens Yorkers to divert food scraps — must shut down their city-fund- c o m p o s t i ng a nd ot h e r from the trash is important, ed programs by the end of the year. means of processing organDatz-Romero said. At over 200 collection sites in ic waste,” said Justin Green, “We want people to start the five boroughs, community executive director of Big getting into the habit. We composters cu r rently collect Reuse. “By eliminating the scraps and send the material to be current composting sites, Compost bins in Union Square Park on April 22, 2022. PHOTO BY HIRAM ALEJANDRO DURÁN / THE CITY want people to separate their organic material from composted locally — that is, bro- we take a step backwards in ken down into nutrient-rich fertil- terms of rolling out more compost- without a Big Reuse staff member. ket, and processes the scraps to the rest of the trash,” she said. izer or mulch used to make soil ing infrastructure.” In remarks made last week, make compost. Datz-Romero said “Am I happy about anaerobic cohealthier. Adams said he was “angry also” the cuts would result in a loss of 11 digestion at Newtown Creek? No, I think the city can do a lot better. Flaring off food waste But the DSNY’s own foodabout the budget cuts, which he jobs at the organization. Organic material makes up said were necessary because of the scrap collection prog rams — The Newtown Creek Wastewa- I call it the lazy route.” including a curbside pickup pro- about a third of New York City’s expense of providing assistance to ter treatment plant project, a partNYC’s #1 enemy gram — work differently. In most waste stream. Diverting it from migrants. nership between the city DepartThe proposed cuts will also of the city, food scraps placed in landf ills reduces emissions of Community composting makes ment of Environmental Protection orange street corner bins and in planet-warming methane as the up just over 10 percent of the over- and National Grid, was proposed result in the delay of curbside brown curbside containers are not material rots and removes rat- all $33 million annual composting in 2013 and aimed to feed biogas organic collection in Staten Island attracting food waste from gar- budget, according to DSNY. actually composted. into local homes to avoid carbon and the Bronx, first scheduled for Instead, most of the scraps get bage in bags awaiting pickup. “You can watch that apple core emissions and replace fracked gas. April 2024, until October of that The budget cuts could result in turn into this crumbly material The utility company would install year, when Manhattan is also slatturned into a slurry, added to wastewater sludge and digested at 115 job losses, GrowNYC claims and then use it in your community equipment to purify the biogas and ed to get the service. D e p a r t me nt of Sa n it a t io n the Newtown Creek Wastewater i n a pet it ion dema nd i ng t he garden to grow more food with it. inject it into the gas system. Resource Recovery Facility, a administration of Mayor Eric That’s the magic and power of But any excess methane that spokesperson Robin Levine indiBrooklyn sewage treatment plant. Adams keep the community com- community composting,” said can’t be used is f lared, which cated the Adams administration is Other food waste gets digested in posting program. Christine Datz-Romero, executive releases carbon dioxide into the “on track to deliver composting Green said that two of the three director of the Lower East Side atmosphere. If the National Grid services” to all New Yorkers by western Massachusetts to create sites Big Reuse runs — in Gowa- Ecology Center. “It’s the direct project were to operate the way it next year. energy and farm fertilizer. “By reducing the food waste The digestion process generates nus and under the Queensboro circle of what we can create and was desig ned, f lar ing biogas biogas, which is mostly the potent Bridge — are dependent on city it’s what we need to do in cities.” would be “virtually” eliminated, that we put into trash bags, our greenhouse gas methane, and support and would need to be shut Since the 1990s, the Ecology according to a document obtained streets will look better and smell better, and best of all, we will be helps power the Newtown Creek down. He added that the third site Center has offered places for New by THE CITY. treatment plant itself. The biogas at Red Hook Farms would contin- Yorkers drop off food scraps. Now After almost a decade of delays, dealing a blow to New York City’s is supposed to service nearby ue but would likely see its com- it runs 20 collection sites, includ- the project began “consistently” number one enemy: rats,” she said homes, but as THE CITY has pre- posting capacity severely curtailed ing the Union Square Greenmar- providing gas into the distribution in a statement. The network of community system at the end of March and shut down “automatically” in August, composters conducts educational said National Grid spokesperson outreach, including about the brown bin program. That work Karen Young. “We conducted an assessment will help ensure the collection prowith our independent specialists gram’s success, said Green. “Most of the people we talk to and found vibrations from the rotating equipment and impacts to the aren’t even aware of the program flow rate of biogas,” she wrote in still,” Green said. “It will take a lot an email, adding the system is now of time to talk to people and eduback online and working as origi- cate them on how to participate in the curbside program. It helps to nally designed. To Vandra Thorburn, a member have face-to-face interactions with Q of the Brooklyn Solid Waste Advi- as many people as possible.” THE CITY (www.thecity.nyc) is sory Board and founder of Vokashi, a small company that composts an independent, nonprofit news Flare towers at Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Greenpoint on Friday, April 12, 2022. A Staten Island organics for a fee, turning food organization dedicated to hardscraps into biogas is not the most hitting reporting that serves the waste transfer station was preparing to produce compost into packaged fertilizer, Feb. 8, 2023. people of New York. sustainable approach. PHOTOS BY HIRAM ALEJANDRO DURÁN / THE CITY, LEFT, AND BEN FRACTENBERG / THE CITY THE CITY
