Queens Composts
BY ANGELA MATUA
AMATUA@QNS.COM
Underneath the Queensboro Bridge
in Long Island City, hundreds of thou-sands
of pounds of food scraps col-lected
by Queens residents undergo
a transformation through a process
called composting.
Though New York City has operated
the NYC Compost Project since 1993,
the Department of Sanitation (DSNY)
has become more aggressive about
convincing New Yorkers to compost.
According to Belinda Mager, the
director of digital media and com-munications
for DSNY, the city has
a “multi-fold strategy” for diverting
organics that began with workshops
to teach people how to compost in
their homes and community gardens.
In 2013, the city began rolling out
the curbside collection program and
handed out brown bins for food scraps
to homeowners and in apartment build-ings.
Residents can also drop off their
food scraps in subways, libraries and
public places like Socrates Sculpture
Park.
“We have this whole portfolio of
initiatives and all of them are trying
to meet New Yorkers where they’re at
and getting them out of the landfill,”
Mager said.
To reach more New Yorkers, the city
partners with nonprofits who can help
them with their composting initiative.
In Queens, one of these organizations
is Big Reuse, which began operat-ing
in the borough in 2005. In 2017,
the organization processed 848,000
pounds of food scraps.
The nonprofit began leasing space
underneath the Queensboro Bridge in
2013 and processes the food scraps
dropped off at commuter stations and
24 FEBRUARY 2018 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
... and by the
end of this
year all city
residents will
have curbside
collection or
have access
to convenient
neighborhood
drop-off sites.
LOUISE BRUCE
former senior program
manager for NYC Organics
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