Staten Island Residents: Reminder, Update Regarding Required Trash Bins For Single-Family To 9-Unit Residential Curbside Reqs, Compost Requirement, Fines Already In Place

We asked the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) about the difficulty some residents have experienced in finding the 25 gallon bins. As someone who purchased the 35 gallon bins and found them to be unwieldy, the 25 gallon ones might be easier to use. The large wheels and square shape give the larger ones an odd type of balance and they’re difficult to pull up concrete steps. The 25 gallon ones are more akin to those regular Roughneck and Rubbermaid brand 25 gallon pails, which are a bit lower and do require bending, but they’re not as heavy as the 35 gallon bins can be. It’s always tempting and easy to overfill and make them difficult to bring out. We also asked about the compost rules and fines being given for violations. 

• Regarding NYC Bins, the most common sizes — 35- and 45-gallon — are available at most local Home Depot stores. The Home Depot on Forest Avenue has a limited amount of 25-gallon bins. Note that these are really for very specific circumstances, people with real space constraints — and that most people have to bend over to wheel them. It is not as simple as “I produce little trash, I want the smallest one.” The 35- and 45-gallon bins are far more appropriate for most households and are more widely available. 

• And finally, regarding composting enforcement, you can find fines for this and other violations here: https://www.nyc.gov/site/dsny/collection/residents/collection-laws-residents.page and information on our giveback events at nyc.gov/getcompost. 

With regard to compost for New Yorkers:  DSNY has been enforcing the composting fines and requirements already. If you are composting everything in your backyard, not mixing compostable materials in your trash, that’s fine. 

You can’t have compostable material in your regular garbage.  This can be inspected by DSNY enforcers. DSNY is not making sure that everyone is setting out something. They are inspecting people’s cans to see if they have mixed the trash and composting.

They have been enforcing with fines since once the snow cleared. Roughly in March, they began enforcing fines for compost and pails with tight fitting lids. In September, residents will be required to have obtained the regulation official NYC DSNY trash bins.  

The fine amounts are different depending on how large a building is. Single family and up to 9 units has one fine structure. 

The bottom line:  Separate the material; if not you can be fined. To prevent waste going to the landfill unnecessarily, they don’t want everything to be mixed with regular trash. Anything organic can be composted. Meat, dairy, prepared foods, etc, but they wil take it and turn it into finished compost.

DSNY has given away more than 9 million pounds, which occurs twice a week, at the compost facility. They are not selling compost bins for home composting, which they did when the compost program first started decades ago before the new facility. Prior to the pail rollout and requirements,  they offered free bin giveaways. Everyone received a single compost bin, which is small and brown. They have designed it to be easy; as long as sanitation can tell it is compost, it is fine.  For a pail, you can line with plastic to keep it clean.

Residents may have noticed the locally placed smart bins that are available. Anyone in the community can use it, you just download the NYC Compost app. However, now that they pickup in front  of people’s homes, it is easier for most people. The smart bins are useful for those who don’t want to hold it for the whole week. All of their compostable material, they can put it in the freezer, then into the compost bin. The bins are available.

All of the local smart bins and resident set out compost is put together.  So each community district has a certain amount of compostable material overall. If you download the NYC  Compost app, then When you’re near a smart bin it alerts you that you are close to one, and in the app you can find where they are located.

As of a few years back, all schools and their cafeterias became required to separate compostable material, instilling the habit in young people.  Expansion of the facility is current and up to date. They have given away 9 million pounds of compost this year. On any given Monday they give it away to residents and to non-profits. They also produce more compost that landscaping companies can purchase from them. Just as the landscapers currently pay to drop off their yard clippings, then they can buy compost to use in their projects.

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DSNY has the largest compost collection in the country. Not the first. For the trucks that have the special equipment, they are in some neighborhoods, they are being equipped on a rolling basis. This refers to the tipping trucks that can automatically lift and dump the new official bins.

So residents need to remember that if it’s compostable, it needs to be separated.  In the same way that the public learned how to separate plastic and paper, they’re slowly catching on to how composting works. It’s beneficial to the environment, both in a reduction of greenhouse gases and leachate from landfills, but also in acting as a natural fertilizer and mulch in home gardens and lawns.

Separating compost. Image Credit – DSNY

Banner Image: Separating compost. Image Credit – DSNY