New York State Assembly Member Harvey Epstein (Assembly District 74) and Assembly Member Dana Levenberg (Assembly District 95) have sponsored a pair of bills to expand compost programming statewide: one bill establishes compost programs on a municipal level across the state, and the other requires composting at SUNY and CUNY campuses.
“3.9 billion tons of food waste end up in New York State landfills each year,” AM Epstein said. “Compost not only prevents the emission of greenhouse gases from food waste sitting in a landfill, but it also absorbs additional emissions from the atmosphere. More state funding and action on composting would help reduce food waste and mitigate the impact of the climate crisis.”
With the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) expanding their curbside food scrap collection program to all five boroughs this past autumn, New York City, as compared to other cities, already boasts one of the most robust organic waste collection programs worldwide. These two pieces of legislation would bolster existing organics collection throughout the state.
“In most communities in my district, there are drop off sites for residents to drop off household compost at local farmers markets, parks, or public works yards,” AM Levenberg said, noting the importance of residential collections. “Curbside pick up would be a great addition to existing offerings to expand participation.”
State funding could also create a richer community composting network. The curbside organics collection currently run by New York City’s Department of Sanitation largely has food scraps anaerobically digested into biodiesel fuel instead of being made into fertilizer for local soil.
“DSNY’s curbside composting differs from community composting, which is when the contents of your composting go back into the community it originated in,” AM Epstein said. “Community composting is the gold standard but it’s hard to scale up so there will always be a need for some industrial composting.”
This past summer, New York City Council voted to reinstate funding for community compost collection in the 2025 fiscal year. Mayor Eric Adams’s across-the-board budget cuts earlier in 2024 had halted city funding for all community composting programs, and while the renewed funding is no small victory in the fight to uphold local food-scrap collection as an essential service, the addition of state funding could also prove beneficial.
Long-standing community compost organizations such as Queens Botanical Garden, Lower East Side Ecology Center, Big Reuse, Earth Matter, and Snug Harbor Botanical Garden, all continue to collect organic waste for local, soil-based composting, and if the two bills are passed, this new stream of funding could be made available for such programs as well.
“My ideal vision is that every New Yorker is able to easily access community composting,” AM Epstein said. “The composting doesn’t have to travel far, as is typically the case with industrial composting. Community composting is critical to addressing the climate crisis.”
Access to composting is a mission that AM Levenberg shares, emphasizing the importance of residential organics collection as well as flexibility.
“A first step to achieving this legislatively, is to learn from my colleagues across the state about how garbage and recycling are traditionally handled in their communities,” she said. “This can vary across the state, especially across urban, suburban, and rural communities. There is not going to be a ‘one size fits all’ solution, but if we aim to make composting readily available, for free or at a low cost, for all New Yorkers, we need to establish frameworks that are replicable across the state.”
