Astoria Lawmaker Calls To Bring Back Composting Program

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Council Member Tiffany Cabán, who represents Astoria, Woodside, Jackson Heights, and other neighborhoods, is asking the city to bring back the composting program as it takes a recess until March.

Cabán made the demand in an open letter to the Sanitation Department last week, reproaching the city’s decision to pause the nation’s largest composting program from late December to March 2023.

“Putting an abrupt pause on the initiative does a disservice to the community’s efforts to build a more sustainable, safer and cleaner neighborhood,” Cabán said in the letter sent on Jan. 13.

The city decided the program should take a three-month recess because “there is little to no yard waste to be collected” in the winter months, the city said on its website.

The program launched in early October last year, offering the voluntary service to all Queens residents with no sign-up required.

The Sanitation Department estimates that out of the 24 million pounds of residential trash and recycling that New Yorkers place on curbs every day, about 8 million pounds is organic waste.

Cabán said in the last season, the compost program diverted over 12.7 million pounds of waste from landfills.