Budget Cuts Come to NYC Compost Project

The average New York City household discards two pounds of organic waste a day. Until recently the NYC Compost Project collected and composted leaves, gave indoor compost bins to interested New Yorkers, and offered extensive workshops on how to compost in the city. The city recently stopped composting all leaves due to budget cuts. Gathered leaves will now be disposed of with the rest of the trash.

The New York City Compost Project operates out of the botanical gardens in each borough. With no botanical garden of its own, the Manhattan Compost Project is run by the Lower East Side Ecology Center. Urban composting has two distinct parts. It can be both part of municipal effort or done by individuals in their kitchens.

The number of free public workshops was also cut due to reduced funding. They had to raise the price on bins for individuals as well. Worm bins went from $10 to $40 and Garden Gourmet Composters went from $20 to $55. The price of Metal Can Composters remained $20.

“The service will remain cut until more budget funds are available. In the interim, the leaves will be disposed along with refuse. These are though economic times, and in that context, the present cuts to composting are not as significant as they could be.” said New York City Department of Sanitation Spokesman, Matthew Lipani, in an e-mail.

Watch below to learn more about urban composting in New York City. Featuring the Manhattan Compost Project. NOTE: some numbers may have changed due to the recent budget cuts.

Click here to see the complete original article and video post on the New York City News Service.

Let us know what you think about urban composting and the city-wide budject cuts!

Tags: budget cuts, Composting, New York City Compost Project, New York City Department of Sanitation, waste, worms

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 5th, 2009 at 7:41 pm and is filed under Composting, Manhattan, Urban Farming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.