NYC’s compost collection program expands to Brooklyn

Brooklynites can have their organic scraps picked up by the city starting Monday as the city’s compost collection program becomes available to every resident in the borough.

With the addition of Brooklyn’s 2.6 million residents, the compost collection service will be available to half of all New Yorkers. Compost collection became available to all of Queens last year.

The city sanitation department plans to launch compost collection in the Bronx and Staten Island next spring. Manhattan will receive the service in October 2024.

“This is the largest curbside composting program in the nation – and also the easiest. All Brooklynites should set out any food waste, yard waste, or food-soiled paper on their recycling day starting next week,” Joshua Goodman, spokesman for the Sanitation Department, said in an email.

Brooklyn residents have until Oct. 13 to order a brown bin from the sanitation department to store their compost. If a building doesn’t have a brown bin, residents can put out their compost in any bin with a lid that’s no larger than 55 gallons.

For large apartment complexes, residents can request that their building management set up a compost bin for organic scraps, Goodman said.

While New Yorkers can toss meat bones and pizza boxes in the brown compost bins, sanitation officials have reminded residents that fecal matter and dead animals could spread germs and contaminate the rest of the compost. So dirty diapers, soiled kitty litter, dead rats and pigeons should go in regular trash.

The expanded compost program is one of a number of sanitation reforms enacted by Mayor Eric Adams, which include amending city rules to mandate all businesses use lidded trash cans instead of dumping trash bags on sidewalks, and requiring residents put out their trash later in the evening.

While composting food scraps is voluntary, the city has made composting yard waste, like leaves and twigs mandatory. Earlier this year the City Council passed a bill to require all residents compost their organic waste by April 2025.

Correction: This story was updated to correct what types of waste must be composted by law. While it is currently required to compost yard waste, a city council bill before Mayor Eric Adams would require residents to begin composting food scraps by April 2025.