Currently 29% of New York‘s waste stream is made up of materials that could be composted instead of sent to live forever in landfill purgatory. Imagine the decrease in sanitation costs, transportation costs and overall environmental costs if we were able to divert that waste back into the ground. That’s why we’re jazzed about this new project that will bring composting — by bike — to New York City! They need to raise $6,000 by September first to start their compost-by-bike project and they are giving away a slew of rad prizes for donations, so read on to learn how you can contribute!.
New York City is moving and shaking on the green-scene in lots of ways — from installing EV charging stations to real-time water metering. However we’ve still got a long way to go in one much needed area — composting. We’re pretty jealous of San Francisco’s city-wide composting system, which is why we’re so excited about this new initiative.
The proposed project is a table-to-farm system, where unused compostables would be picked up by bicycle and returned to their rightful place — the soil — instead of the landfill. The organizers currently has just about everything they need to start the program — restaurants, farms and bicyclists who are willing to participate — all they need are the specialized bikes to get things rolling. They are trying to raise money to jump start composting through the streets in order to prove its viability, so they are asking the public to kick in some cash to help. They are offering prizes all the way up the donation chain, from a free pickup for a $15 donation to a free tour of a farm for a $150 donation to — our personal favorite — a chance to personally pick up compost by bike, in the streets of New York, for a $250 donation. If you’ve got some cash and are looking for a better way to compost in The Big Apple, head on over to their site and spend a little dough to divert unnecessary trash from the NYC waste stream.
+ Donate to the New York Compost Project
I’ve long wondered: if almost a third of NYC’s garbage is compostables, and the city pays a high price for landfilling waste, wouldn’t it be in the city’s economic (as well as environmental) interest to have municipal pickup of compostables?