One of the few Big Brotherly things I like about how San Francisco is run is that composting is mandatory, as is seperating out recyclables. Unfortunately large numbers of people are apparently incapable of doing this properly, but it is an eminently reasonable rule.
I consider this an undue burden on the landlord if this was required. Most tenants are terrible recyclers in my experience. If your landlord wants to do it, great, if not, move on.
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They wouldn't be terrible if the landlord was fined for recycling violations = raise in rent. Tenants will get the message. Write it into the lease.
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My wife and I I own a small building in Brooklyn and we are not doing this program. It is already a constant struggle to keep the trash and recycling neatly and properly separated, and NYC sanitation agents, are constantly circling my neigborhhod, like vultures, looking to issue tickets. Yes, all the tenants are reminded constantly of the recycling and trash rules but it does not matter. At the end of the day, we have to deal with trash and we pay the violations we receive. I refuse to do any more work than I already have to tend to another type of trash. I do not want to see this program expand or succeed, in the least.
Any tenant who wants to compost can take their trash to a drop off site and pat themselves on the back while doing it.
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There's no reason for the sarcasm in your last sentence. You should be happy people want to protect the environment. You could have ended that sentence with the word "site."
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Did you read Robert's comment? He is being penalized for his tenants laziness and inaction. So I guess his tenants are the problem, they apparently don't want to 'protect the environment'.
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You should have someone pick through the recycling at 3:30 AM the night before pickup, and do so loudly in the common area. If they want to complain, they can look in the mirror.
it's not your building. it's theirs. check your lease. follow what it says in the lease. full stop.
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So your assumption is that the lease spells out a prohibition against participating in the city's composting program? Question mark.
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It should be mandatory in rt infested NYC. Chinatown (full of restaurants) on a hot summer garbage day can be truly gross.
Back in the days of milkman there were also companies that came and took away "swill buckets" of compost for feed for pig farms.
Like delivered milk in some areas becoming a thing again we are and should be looking backwards for the right way to things.
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Oh my, where I live they don't even do any type of even regular recycling of glass, aluminum and paper. So many don't want to get involved with it at all.
I can't even locate any of the recycling bins available from the town. No one wants it anymore. Sort of a hot potato issue in many towns/cities today. Some are burying recyclables in the landfill for lack of places for it to go to and affordability issues. China even doesn't want our garbage anymore.
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The City recently began offering the organic waste pickup in my neighborhood. We previously composted elsewhere, which reduced our garbage load, but only to an extent. Once the DOS program began, having the ability to compost all organics--including meat scraps, bones, and dairy products, has greatly reduced the garbage. I manage the waste disposal for the 3-family house we live in, and typically the garbage now only has to go out once per week instead of twice. That in itself is a labor and cost saver. Further, the bins supplied by the City--both the smaller ones that fit in the kitchen and the larger outdoor bin (but not too large to take up too much space)--latch shut, and there has never been an issue with leachate or smells emitting from the shut containers.
The complaints in the article regarding staff not being able to handle are a simple shrug off and wouldn't be difficult to address. The concerns expressed in comments about some residents failing to separate materials is valid. It would be virtually impossible to have every individual properly separate all forms of waste, however, and such is not a valid excuse to write off the potential of having the program available in a building for those who wanted to use it. The bins are smaller than most garbage bins, come with wheels, have latch shut. They could be kept in a separate place than most garbage tins by building managers/supervisors so that those tenants who actually want to utilize them properly may do so.
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We just started this in my building in the South Bronx. I was skeptical at first, but I'm a convert! I bought a small bin that fits under my sink, I line it with a compost-able bag, and have not had an issue with any bugs or odor. Every morning I use it for my espresso grinds or tea bags, and after 3 days or so, I bring the bag to the brown bin in the basement. If I had anything smelly to go in there (like onions) I would take it out the next morning. These are just collection bins, the composting happens off-site. No one is sorting through already discarded trash, there is minimal more work for the staff, no odors in the trash room, and we look at it as an amenity to be able to have this collection.
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We do this in the building where I rent in the Bronx. As for keeping organic waste in the apartment many just use small brown bags and store the waste wrapped up airtight in the freezer until time to take it to the brown organic waste bins. A number of my tenants like to hit the farms upstate during apple picking season so we jumped at the opportunity and the management was cool to implement it.
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The problem is ignorance about composting, as anyone who's done it properly will tell you that there is no smell or 'pest' issue. The key is to be sure the compost heap has enough 'browns', and also ensure that no one mistakenly adds fish, dairy (egg shells are ok though) or meat.
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I'm sure there are tenants who also do not want a composting program. The odor and pest hurdles are hard for me to overcome plus there is the ick factor of keeping wet trash, excuse me, organic waste in my apartment. How is it possible that odors won't escape or pests won't get in these bins? No lid is that tight. I notice the Sanitation Department spokeswoman did not explain HOW composting does not attract insects and other pests. I put my regular trash out every night because I don't want anything festering overnight or attracting our copper-colored friends.
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I felt similarly to you before my city instituted its everyone must compost program. We each got a small bin from the composting/trash company and the way the bin is engineered there is air flow allowed in so that things don't sit and rot and fester. You get compostable bags to line the bin and/or do what I do, which is I use paper take out containers or something like that to hold the wet compost. Tissues and napkins go in, too. It actually doesn't smell or bring pests if you do it right. Same goes for the big bin downstairs. Since beginning to compost, I generate barely any kitchen trash at all and end up taking compost out twice as much as regular trash. Try it, you might like it!
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Have you not been reading the posts about freezing the compost until it goes in the bins?
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Have you not read any of the posts here about freezing your compost until you are ready to place it in the bins?
It's a lovely gesture and we all wish you well. But the renters in my building don't separate their trash properly now, even with constant reminders. They are not going to go another step further holding their organic waste and separate that properly. Also, in my experience in property management, there are a few people in the group highly interested in recycling and doing all they can. The rest of us not so much.
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Tell your landlord he will save money on trash bags. Up to 20% of building waste is compostable. Since compost goes into bagless bins it means fewer big plastic bags out on the sidewalk. At about $1 each for a large collection plastic bag, that's a significant savings per month - at my 72 unit building it's $160.
Also, keeping compost out of the trash stream means cleaner regular trash. Cleaner trash reduces the frequency of changing your household bag. Fewer chores!
Finally, the waterbug population in my building seems to have crashed. We're wondering if composting is why.
Despite what NYC Taxpayer says, the bins that the city supplies are small and don't take up much room. Also, the tops lock, so smells don't escape and creatures can't get at the contents. We had some skeptics in my building, including me, but people are using it and now I am one of its cheerleaders. I say keep pushing.
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LOL. Look, I hate to break it to you, but the cost of setting up and maintaining a separate compost stream for 72 units is probably going to exceed the princely sum of $160.
This is a first-world solution to a problem that is bigger than what all the urban hippies can solve. This is a problem of people not paying for what they get. When you use fossil fuels today (and growing food requires a huge amount of those) you are not paying for what you get. So the products that you create from those fuels are cheaper because some of the cost of creating them is borne by everyone, not just those that buy the product.
A carbon tax would solve the problem. It would also result in less composting need, because there would be less food wasted because food would actually cost what it should cost, not the artificially low prices we pay today.
Please people, get serious. You are not helping by signaling to everyone how silly you are when you have stinky little metal cans of banana peels and think THAT helps make up for not paying for what you get.
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Here is how organic waste is handled in Linköping SE so that in the end it becomes biogas used as renewable energy fuel for city buses and many other vehicles.
Linköping has what may be the most advanced waste handling system in the world since the system uses the solid-waste fraction (after recycling) as renewable energy fuel that heats the water that heats virtually all buildings in the city. Waste collected from all housing consists of solid waste and green-plastic bags containing food waste. That mixture is trucked to Gärstad incinerator and biogas plant about 5 km north of me. There the green plastic bags are automatically separated from the rest of the waste and they travel on the conveyor belt to the biogas production system.
In addition, if you drive by the sewage waste treatment plant you will see large illustrations on a couple of tanks telling you, the passerby, that the sewage also becomes bio gas.
West Palm Beach Florida has taken one of these steps by having Danish Babcock and Wilcox build a plant somewhat similar to the incineration part of the Linköping plant.
So far the Times has shown no interest in reporting even on the West Palm Beach system, let alone systems over here. WPB got brief mention in an extremely negative Times article last year.
Only-NevrInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
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Linköping has a population of only 153,000. No comparison to NYC.
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Perhaps the landlord has a cost issue, or is unable to assign additional recycling duties to his staff due to work rules. If the tenant was to organize similar minded tenants to volunteer to handle the extra work for sorting and storing the organic waste the landlord might consent. Would the tenant offer a small bit of her space to store this material between pickups?
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I would!
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A lot of apartment buildings don't have the space for this, particularly the older walk-ups. We don't have organic pick up in my neighborhood yet. I don't think too many in my area will bother with it. Food scrap smell and our homes are close together. I don't want to smell my neighbor's rotting food and she doesn't want to smell mine.
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It does not really increase your trash load space. You will have compost bins, but you will have much less trash. My wife and I have been composting regularly for about a dozen years, throwing out about a quart of organic waste every day or two. Meanwhile, our regular trash pail in our kitchen rarely fills up. Since no food goes into our regular trash bin, it does not smell either. Having grown up (until 1989) in Staten Island, smelling either New Jersey or Fresh Kills, I can assure you my home with composting smells infinitely better.
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Keep it in the freezer until it's time to drop off.
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You're thinking of the old organic composting boxes which stank. The box the waste is deposited in is sealed tightly and is solid plastic. There is no smell involved. I use a plastic baggie in my kitchen to save my organics, and deposit the contents once a week, sometimes less often.
Since I've been doing this, the only thing I discard in the trash is the usual plastic packaging, which means there is nothing to attract rats or other vermin in the bags that sit outside waiting for pickup.
Believe me, come this summer, the streets where those trash bags sit won't smell, won't attract unwelcome diners.
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