It’s A City Thing: Organic Recycling

We have a new mandatory form of recycling that is slowly being rolled out in New York City.  After the test neighborhoods, we were one of the first to get it.  Food Recycling.  Yeah – it’s as gross as it sounds.

The city gave us these lovely brown trash cans to collect our organic waste – anything food related, food soiled paper, and yard waste.  It all goes into the can (with no bags unless they are compostable) and gets picked up with our trash twice a week.

They also gave everyone a little bucket to keep “on your kitchen counter or in your freezer” (yes – the paper actually said that!) and collect food until it is taken outside and dumped in the other can.  This bucket is no longer in use in our house.  It got so stinky and slimy and yucky…  Now I just throw all of the food scraps onto one of the dirty plates and take it out right away.

These trash cans sit right outside of our window – right next to our air conditioner.  I am looking forward to cooler weather and less stinky odors!  One week the can didn’t get set out at the curb…and it didn’t take us long to breed maggots! 

I think the city is using this giant compost pile to create fertilizer for the parks, and renewable energy.  I guess it’s a good thing to put it to use, and it’s the same amount of stuff (trash) for them to pick up and process…but it is definitely not one of my favorite parts of living in New York City!