STUYVESANT TOWN — Residents of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village will soon be able to toss compostable kitchen scraps and other organic waste into special bins that will be picked up by the Department of Sanitation.
The program starts Dec. 5 and the compost receptacles will be located near the recycling bins of each building in the complex, according to DSNY spokeswoman Belinda Mager.
DSNY will make compost pickups Monday, Wednesday and Friday, she said.
GrowNYC, an environmental group that runs farmers markets across the city, provides a weekly compost pickup at its seasonal greenmarket in the Stuy Town Oval, which piqued the interest of residents who said they'd like a year-round option, according to Rei Moya, director of environmental services at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.
The complex teamed up with DSNY to opt into its pilot compost pickup program, which launched in spring 2013 and is currently operating in select neighborhoods around the city, according to Moya.
“We got a lot of interest from residents who wanted year-round pickup, and wanted to be able to drop it off whenever instead of saving it in their freezer all week, which can be cumbersome,” he said.
Organic waste includes food scraps and spoiled food, yard trimmings and plants, according to the Department of Sanitation. The contents of the brown bins, which are marked “food and yard waste,” will then be sorted to weed out any non-organic material and shipped upstate to be turned into soil.
According to the agency’s website, one third of all the trash its crews pick up is compostable, which accounts for a tremendous amount of trash ending up in landfills that could be used to make soil to nourish farms, gardens and sidewalk trees, Moya said.
“Over 3,000 tons of compostable material is thrown out in New York City alone,” Moya said in a video describing the program.
“We’re confident that with your help we can make a significant impact on that number.”
Sanitation crews currently do curbside pickup of compostable materials in certain neighborhoods in the four outer boroughs, but the Stuy Town program will be the first major curbside compost pickup in Manhattan, according to DSNY’s website, which has a full list of neighborhoods included in the program.
