Feature
through a perforated pipe on a cycle
to “maintain a consistent oxygen level,”
Hoversten said. A Gore Cover helps to
control heat and moisture and maintains
odor reduction. The mixture is then
turned over multiple times to extend
the decomposition process and then
screen out any large items.
The entire process takes about five
to six months and once compost is
produced it is used in city parks and
community gardens.
Community Board 2, which includes
Long Island City, Sunnyside and Wood-side,
was enrolled in the curbside col-lection
program in Oct. 2017.
All buildings of nine units or less
were automatically enrolled and resi-dents
should have received small bins
to store organics in their homes as well
as a larger brown bin for building use.
Buildings with 10 or more units can
submit a request to enroll on the DSNY
website.
Composting food scraps is beneficial
for a number of reasons, Bruce argues.
Since the food waste is not collected
in a regular trash bin and emanating
odors, residents can take out the trash
a little less often.
This process also allows buildings to
cut off the food supply for rodents or
other creatures.
“We have a staff person and her
building enrolled in organics collection,”
Bruce said. “They had a terrible skunk
problem in Inwood and they couldn’t get
the skunks to go away. They tried ex-terminators.
After enrolling in organics
collection the problem just completely
ceased.”
Hoversten added that about 30 per-cent
of trash in New York City is com-postable
so one of the main benefits of
this program is diversion. By keeping
this trash out of landfills, New Yorkers
reduce space demand and also reduce
the amount of greenhouses gases that
are produced when this matter breaks
down.
This “complex system of beneficial
organisms” acts like a sponge and can
retain water. The compost “holds on to
water and releases it slowly over time”
reducing the number of times you should
water your plants, Bruce said. Compost
Photos and videos by Angela Matua/QNS
Big Reuse helps operate the city's compost program underneath the Queensboro Bridge.
can also hold on to harmful heavy met-als
so that they are not released into
the soil and made available to plants,
she added.
In 2016, Mayor Bill de Blasio an-nounced
his plan to contribute zero
waste to landfills by 2030, which in-cludes
reducing commercial waste
disposal by 90 percent and bringing
26 FEBRUARY 2018 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
organics collections to all city residents
and public schools.
So far, about 3.3 million New Yorkers
have access to curbside collection and by
the end of this year all city residents will
have curbside collection or have access
to convenient neighborhood drop-off sites.
In Queens, Community Boards 2, 5,
7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 14 have curbside
collection and the city plans to expand
to other boards this year.
“I think at first it’s a very daunting
experience to think about taking some-thing
you normally throw in a bin and
don’t have to think about and once you
make that change keeping a system,”
Bruce said. “There’s such an enormous
amount of opportunity for diverting.”
