Revaluing waste in New York City : planning for small-scale compost

Abstract

One-third of the municipal solid waste stream is organic material that, when processed in landfills, produces methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas. Composting is a proven strategy for organic waste management, which also creates a nutrient-rich soil amendment. This thesis begins with a review of three North American cities (Portland, Toronto, San Francisco) that have implemented successful composting programs, but rely on trucking the material to distant processing facilities. In New York City, the Department of Sanitation has not yet implemented a citywide composting program. In this thesis I explore four small-scale compost programs in New York City. I find that citizens, working outside the purview of city government, have developed their own innovative, local approaches to composting, which suggest viable alternatives to trucking. New York has a proven capacity for managing compost locally; I argue that these models should be replicated throughout the city. I conclude that to process organic waste material properly, it should be reclassified as a food product, and its management shifted to a new city agency that would launch and support local compost programs. Case studies are compost programs operating in Central Park, Battery Park City, Fort Greene community gardens, and the North Brooklyn Compost Project in McCarren Park.