Compost Site Opens In Forest Hills As NYC Scraps Organics Expansion

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — As Mayor Eric Adams plans to scrap a promised expansion of the city's composting program, an environmentally-focused volunteer group in Forest Hills is launching another compost drop-off site in the neighborhood this weekend.

In partnership with Commonpoint Queens and the Queens Botanical Gardens, the Forest Hills Green Team is opening a composting site at Commonpoint's Central Queens office, located on 108 Street and 67 Road, which will be open Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. as of April 3.

The new site, which will join weekend drop-off sites managed by The Compost Collective and Grow NYC, offers a location for neighbors living on the eastern side of Queens Boulevard to take their food scraps, organizers said, noting the importance of drop-off sites amid the mayor's proposed composting cuts.

"We are extremely disappointed with Mayor Adam’s proposal to cut composting programs” said Dan Miner, co-chair of the Forest Hills Green Team.

Last month, citing low participation rates, Adams halted an expansion of the city's voluntary, curbside composting program, which Mayor Bill de Blasio brought back at the end of his tenure, after also scrapping the program amid the pandemic.

Miner is among a host of environmental advocates and lawmakers who rebuked Adams' plan, noting the importance of composting in the city's fight against climate change and equitable waste management.

"The consequences of not equitably expanding the organics program are more rats ripping open our trash bags and thus more litter on our streets," said Sandy Nurse, a Brooklyn City Council member who heads the sanitation committee, at the time.

Community composting, though, has long-filled pandemic-induced composting gaps citywide, including in Forest Hills.

Last year, when the GrowNYC compost drop-off site closed at the MacDonald Park farmers market due to the pandemic, the Forest Hills Green Team opened a volunteer-led site in its place, collecting food scraps from about 300 people per-week and providing political literature leading up to the election, organizers said.

"You can't go straight from A to Z, you've got to show people how things are connected, how putting your banana peels in a composting project will help lead to environmental justice," Mark Laster, co-chair of the Forest Hills Green Team, told Patch at the time.

Now that the GrowNYC site has reopened, the Forest Hills Green Team is aiming to fill a gap for neighbors living in other parts of Forest Hills.

"Last December, we reached out to Queens Botanical Gardens and Commonpoint Queens to open this new site in order to allow easier access for people who live on the other side of Queens Boulevard," said Laster.

The effort is welcomed by Commonpoint Queens, a social services non-profit located at 67-09 108 Street.

Says the organizations CEO, Danielle Ellman, "Caring for our environment is a big priority for us and an initiative that our entire community can come together for, and we are excited to have our neighbors bring their food scraps to our new compost collection site."

Find out more information about the Forest Hills Green Team's new food waste drop-off site on their website or Facebook page.

Related Article: Forest Hills' New Composting Site Is A Place For Civic Engagement