Hi all,
Although the Department of Sanitation has announced the suspension of curbside composting, the city’s budget is not yet final. We’re continuing to fight to make sure NYC has access to free, public composting, and we need your help.
In addition to the newly announced curbside suspension, all of our community compost drop-off sites (like the Greenmarkets and various subway station drop-offs) have been already suspended, and there is no apparent funding for them in the Mayor’s 2021 budget, nor a timeline for reopening.
The Proposed Budget leaves America’s largest city with no free, public composting option for at least 14 months, if not longer. It threatens to undo years of hard-fought progress establishing local compost systems and educating millions of New Yorkers on the benefit of composting. This is not acceptable.
Fortunately, the City budget must be approved by the City Council before it can be enacted. Corey Johnson, Speaker of New York City Council, is a longtime champion of composting and sustainable waste management.
Now, we need to ask him to prove it: safely reopen and expand community drop-off sites starting May 5, so there is no lag in public composting collection. Offer us New Yorkers an alternative to throwing our food scraps into the trash.
We can do this in a safe way. Most of our city’s Greenmarkets are already open, with everyone adhering to new safety protocols. We can safely reopen our community drop-off sites at the Greenmarkets, as long as we follow the same safety protocols as the rest of the market. Like all other sanitation workers, our compost workers also will need to be provided with proper training and PPE.
In addition to reopening existing community drop-off sites, we need to expand them to make sure they’re accessible to all New Yorkers. The expansion is also necessary in anticipation of increased demand due to the curbside suspension and knowing that the drop-off process will take longer, accommodating fewer people, due to the necessary safety protocols.
Please contact Corey Johnson to voice your support for reopening and expanding the community compost drop-off sites:
If you post on social, please use the hashtag #SaveOurCompost so we can repost your support.
If you have any suggestions or want to get further involved in this campaign, please leave a comment below.
In soildarity,
Anna
PS Happy Earth Day!
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Draft email:
Subject: Fund & Reopen NYC’s Compost Drop-off Sites
Dear Speaker Johnson,
Thank you for being a champion for green jobs, our shared environment, and for our City’s composting programs in particular.
With major budget cuts threatening DSNY’s curbside compost program, we’re asking for your leadership to ensure that our community drop-off sites can be maintained and expanded starting May 5, so there is no lag in public compost collection.
Thank you in advance for fighting to fund this essential service and offering New Yorkers an alternative to throwing our food scraps into the trash and exporting them to landfills.