Composting in New York City is now mandatory. All NYC residents are required to separate food scraps, food-soiled paper or yard waste from trash, which means property owners and buildings can be fined for non-compliance.
The city’s composting system, is more powerful than average backyard composting and can handle a wider range of waste. But before you panic about finding a brown bin (tip: everything you need to know about bins is here), there’s a more pressing question New Yorkers are getting wrong: you’re probably throwing away things that could be composted.
Here are some of the most New York City things you can compost:
1. That greasy pizza box
Yes, even that one. Food-soiled paper is totally compostable, grease and all.
2. Apples
Finished eating your big apple in the Big Apple? Toss the core in your compost bin.
3. That bodega napkin
Used napkins, paper towels, paper bags. If it’s paper and it touched food, it can go in the brown bin.
4. Your coffee cup sleeve
Not the cup, but the sleeve? Yes. The coffee-covered cardboard sleeve is compostable. The plastic-lined cup is not.
5. Chicken wing bones
Yes, NYC wants your meat. And dairy. It’s built different.
6. Dead flowers from your corner deli bouquet
RIP. But make them count. Flowers, stems, leaves: all compostable.
7. Those back-of-the-fridge leftovers
Too much takeout? It happens. Dump the spoiled food in the compost bin.
8. Born without a green thumb?
If your green thumb seems to have skipped a generation, toss those failed flower box attempts in your brown bin.
What did you recently discover that was compostable? Visit nyc.gov/CurbsideComposting for more resources.
This article was sponsored and produced in partnership with the NYC Department of Sanitation.
