Mayor Eric Adams has hailed the new universal curbside compost collection program in Brooklyn and Queens as an “automatic, guaranteed, free, year-round service.” But some tenants in large apartment buildings say their landlords or superintendents have yet to embrace the effort to reduce organic waste in landfills.
Tenants in Williamsburg, Kensington and Astoria detailed a broad range of experiences with composting. Some tenants said the landlords of their large buildings had outright refused to adjust how garbage is handled. Some landlords were concerned that compost would attract Adams’ most hated enemy: rats. Other apartment buildings, meanwhile, had implemented a compost system within weeks.
“We’ve talked to our landlord, and he just was like, ‘Absolutely not, it’s too much of a hassle and a pain,’” said Kelley Davies as she emptied several freezer bags of compost into a community collection bin at Domino Park in Williamsburg this week.
Her neighbors would probably compost more if her 30-unit building had a setup, she said.
Last year, Queens became the first borough to receive compost collection. The service expanded to all of Brooklyn last month. The Bronx, Staten Island and Manhattan are slated to receive the service next year.
Landlords and building superintendents can’t currently be compelled to participate in the voluntary program. The city isn’t issuing fines until 2025, when the program is in effect citywide. Fines will start at $25 for apartment buildings with fewer than nine units, and $100 for larger apartment complexes.
The Bronx, Staten Island and Manhattan are slated to receive the service next year.
For now, sanitation department spokesperson Joshua Goodman said the agency is issuing warnings to landlords in Brooklyn and Queens who are not separating compost for pickup. There is a mandate, however, to compost yard waste in Brooklyn and Queens.
“This is a long-term process of culture change in the city and within our buildings,”…
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