The City Council signed off on a slew of bills on Thursday that will mandate New Yorkers to separate their food and yard scraps from the trash as lawmakers attempt to cut down on the amount of garbage being sent to landfills.
The legislation effectively takes the voluntary composting program Mayor Eric Adams announced earlier this year and puts teeth in it, which supporters say will help the Big Apple meet its goals to slash trash that needs to get hauled.
“This Zero Waste package will not only greatly expand accessibility to composting and recycling across our city, but will also make it easier for New Yorkers to incorporate environmental action into their routines,” said Council Majority Leader Keith Powers (D-Manhattan).
Each of the four bills passed with veto-proof majorities, though City Hall did not immediately respond to inquiries about if Adams intends to sign them.
Composting is already available borough-wide in Queens as part of Adams’ initial pilot.
Now, the Sanitation Department will be required under city statute to expand the program to Brooklyn by October, Staten Island and The Bronx by March 2024 and Manhattan by October 2024, the schedule that City Hall promised when it initially rolled out the effort.
The Sanitation Department will also have the power to hit building and business owners with fines if they fail to use the new organics bins more than four times in a sixth month period, like how the city’s current recycling program works.
Many of the fines start off at $25 for the fifth overall offense and work up to $100 for the seventh offense.
“These bills are a call to action for our city to get serious about climate change,” said Councilwoman Sandy Nurse (D-Brooklyn), a key sponsor of one of the measures.
Nurse’s bill requires the Sanitation Department to provide new information about City Hall’s progress in cutting the amount of trash getting shipped to landfills.
Another bill from Powers requires that officials set up at least two locations in each borough where New Yorkers can drop off electronics and other potentially recyclable items that aren’t typically collected through normal trash pickup.
The expansion of recycling will cost an estimated $2.6 million annually by the time it is fully built out in 2025, according to the fiscal analysis accompanying the legislation.
