New York, NY – The Citizens Budget Commission today released a report that analyzes the potential cost to New York City taxpayers of diverting food scraps and other organic material from landfills as part of the City’s environmental agenda. The City has initiated a residential organic waste collection pilot and recently adopted a mandate on large commercial producers of food waste. By 2018 the City aims to have a citywide residential program, and the commercial mandate could be expanded as greater processing capacity becomes available.

The report – titled “Can We Have Our Cake and Compost it Too? An Analysis of Food Waste Diversion in New York City” – finds an expansion of the City’s organics programs would impose substantial logistical and financial burdens. If  residential curbside organics collection was expanded citywide, the program would add new costs ranging from $177 million to $251 million annually, because at least 88,000 new truck-shifts by the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) would be needed, adding traffic and contributing to local air pollution. Moreover, if residential or commercial organic waste diversion were to expand significantly, accessing processing capacity close to the city would be a challenge, at least in the short run.

Given these hurdles, an alternative technology for food waste diversion –in-sink food waste disposers– should also be examined as part of the City’s organics diversion strategy. This underutilized technology could divert a significant amount of food waste from landfills to some of the City’s wastewater treatment plant digesters without adding new trucks to the road.

Until the City can address the high cost of residential garbage collection and secure adequate organics processing capacity, it should devise a more limited strategy. DSNY and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) should collaborate on approaches that could achieve meaningful environmental benefits without adding new costs. Two possibilities are:

1. Expand curbside collections only where and when additional collection routes are not required. If participation levels are high enough, DSNY could expand the organics program while avoiding additional collection routes. This could be achieved by either replacing a weekly refuse pickup with an organics pickup or collecting refuse and organics simultaneously with special trucks with two separate compartments. An analysis of the city’s 59 sanitation districts finds such collection efficiencies are possible in 1 district at current organics set-out rates, and 10 districts if organics set-out rates match neighborhood recycling rates. Achieving such efficiencies would require City Council approval and a significant boost to participation rates.
2. Consider encouraging use of in-sink disposers in select neighborhoods with adequate wastewater treatment plant infrastructure and capacity to reduce garbage collection. DEP and DSNY should collaborate to identify neighborhoods where in-sink disposers could be used without burdening existing wastewater treatment infrastructure and where trash collections could be reduced. DEP operates in a more constrained regulatory environment than DSNY so a joint effort is critical to developing a technically feasible strategy. The distribution of costs for the purchase, installation, and operation of the devices between the City, building owners, and residents would also need to be resolved.

“As New York City seeks environmental benefits from wider diversion of organic waste, City officials should understand these programs have real costs,” said CBC President Carol Kellermann. “Unless residential trash collection costs are reduced, new program costs will greatly overwhelm any potential savings from landfill reduction.”

“A targeted and thoughtful approach to organic waste diversion would preserve municipal resources and ensure diversion programs are sustainable for the long term,” said Tammy Gamerman, CBC Senior Research Associate. “Collection efficiencies and greater use of in-sink food waste disposers should be key components of the City’s organic waste strategy.”