DSNY organics collection
@jumping in – when bags get this complicated you need to spoon feed people exactly with you want them to use: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/biodegradable-bags-a-load-of-rubbish/article4316356/ i was past the generation that was pummeled with the environmental brainwashing in school growing up – and i’m not completeley bashing it, a lot of it is good… and after all who wants to go back to the old days of pollution – but don’t assume i am making it my life’s vocation – tell me exactly what / where / how to do and ENABLE ME and keep reinforcing it. The mechanics and the message are important. I know a lot of old timer landlords took the cans and immediately “re-purposed” them for personal use, but some of us “in-betweeners” were willing to go along with it, but not if the program does not have its $hit together.
dorkofwindsor
in Waste Management 10 years and 1 month ago
18
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18 replies
sle2123 | 10 years and 1 month ago
Hi, I’m a Columbia Journalism student writing for an environmental reporting class about the New York Department of Sanitation pilot programs for organic material collection. I want to talk to residents in participating neighborhoods about their experience with the countertop and curbside bins, how easy or confusing they find the program, ideas for improvement, etc. If you are interested, please reach out to me at sle2123@columbia.edu
thetinkerswagon | 10 years and 1 month ago
Our counter top bin is used to hold dry cat food. If the cat ever expires, I will give the bin away. the outside bin is as new as it was the day we got it. I am trying to find a use for it. the other day I cut back an old grapevine and attempted to put the pieces into the brown bin but they were to big and unyielding so I tossed them into the regular trash bin. If we have another baby, I may put the brown bin in the house and use it for diaper collection.
Lurker | 10 years and 1 month ago
Week after week I watch the sanitation workers dutifully open up the organics bins and dump them straight into the same pile of garbage they chuck the regular refuse in. So unless there’s some miracle sorting device somewhere in the line, the whole thing is a boondoggle. A few months back there was a report that the company in delaware hired to handle all the compost was overwhelmed and not able to handle the firehose of organic material and so I thought the program was suspended anyway?
sle2123 | 10 years and 1 month ago
You’re right about the Delaware plant, but according to DSNY, there are other plants, and the program has definitely announced expansion to more neighborhoods this May and June. I’m really interested in the situations you two are describing. It sounds as though the program isn’t well-managed in your neighborhoods. I would love to use your comments in my story — could you email me at sle2123@columbia.edu so we can set up a time to talk on your phone and i can interview you about your experience? Thanks.
greenmountain | 10 years and 1 month ago
My mother said she loves me. I can give you several more about great programs, which appear to many of us to be fake, or substantial failures. This is a home improvement website. 3 residential buildings just exploded in the East Village. What city programs failed to prevent this? Is it like “broken windows” policing? If enforcing low level laws prevents high level crimes, what low level laws, if enforced, could prevent gas explosions? Lead paint law? Lead shower pans? Commercial and toxic renovation debris in public receptacles? Wage theft? There is a meeting in Albany in a few days about accountability in workforce development. Do we know how many people work in and on our 3.4 million NYC homes? Why or why not? Why do we seem to hear only about the 0.2 million new (NEW!) affordable homes planned and under construction? Whats going on with 16/17 of our existing homes? We keep learning about failures in Build it Back and Sandy Recovery; compared to what? How is the home improvement industry working for the rest of the city? Keep up the good work.
slopefarm | 10 years and 1 month ago
Um, back to compost recycling. We have a composter in the back yard. With the advent of compost recycling, we had to decide — keep composting a more limited mix of organics and throwing mroe away, or put the organics in the bin for DASNY. We did not want to keep two containers on the counter. Thing is, I’m just too friggin lazy to put a liner bag in two compost bins twice a week, so I just dump the compost in there and then hose the bins our once a month (except in winter — I remembered to turn the outside water off this year, thank goodness). Not lovin’ it. Winter was a pain, with the organics just freezing up in the bin and accumulating until thaw.
sle2123 | 10 years and 1 month ago
Hi, all of these comments are interesting, and can help direct me in research, but I must emphasize that I can’t use your feedback unless I can interview you and attribute quotes. Please reach out to me via email if you would be willing to be interviewed. It seems like all of you have well-thought out criticism of the program, and I would love to discuss it further over the phone. sle2123@columbia.edu
nyc_sport | 10 years and 1 month ago
This ought not be difficult or inconvenient. I have been freezing all of my vermin welcoming food waste for 30 years since my first Manhattan apartment. We have no organics collection, but my wife has been bringing our organic waste to the Union Square market for composting for however long that has existed, perhaps +/- 5 years. We have two bags in the freezer, one for compostable food waste brought to the market every one to two weeks, and one for non-compostable waste we discard in a frozen mass with the regular trash. No smelly garbage, no vermin.
higherwhitley | 10 years and 1 month ago
I stopped putting out the brown bin for a while after the Delaware news, but if the compost is simply going in the regular trash anyway it seems like rather a pointless endeavor to be putting it out again. But I compost most stuff in the back yard anyway. It would be good to know what the real story is with collection is. It should get sorted out before the program is expanded any further.
Bessie | 10 years and 1 month ago
I’ve noticed that the rats feeding off the community garden compost look much thinner, sleeker and healthier than the chicken wing/junk food eaters out by the subway.
no-permits | 10 years and 1 month ago
@nyc_sport that’s disgusting.
anotherposter | 10 years and 1 month ago
I’m happy with the program. I think it’s still in the pilot phase so some cans might be getting dumped into regular trash and only some is going to be sorted to make sure people are using it correctly. I’ve seen a lot of improper use, mainly folks using the wrong kind of bags in them. For the kitchen bin, I use the bucket they gave us but would just use any tupperware had they not given us one. I grew up in a more rural setting so we always had a bucket on the counter for food scraps that someone would go toss in the compost pile after dinner each night. My one complaint is that when I only had a little bit of stuff, I just put the kitchen bucked on the curb full and they tossed the whole thing in the trash so I lost it. The outside cans are great.The attached lids are good until the garbage men toss them around and break them off (seen several like this). We and many neighbors use them and I don’t see any difference between putting the waste in the bins or the trash as far as smell or vermin. I have tons of yard waste from gardening and house plants (on top of food scraps) and am glad to have these bins for them instead of having to try to get it all in layer upon layer of contractor bags.
CTG | 10 years and 1 month ago
We enthusiastically participated in the pilot program last summer (Bay Ridge) but abruptly stopped after watching DSNY toss the organics in with their regular collection. Incidentally, I tried posting something in the B’Stoner forum about this issue and the webmaster blocked it!
dorkofwindsor | 10 years and 1 month ago
couldn’t find the bags, no shopkeeper knew or cared, apparently there is one place in the neighborhood that does stock them but i don’t go there for anything else and i am not making a separate trip. I see most use the brown bin without bags and there is a year worth of disgusting nasty gross crap that attracts flies and cockroaches (no one has a hose, and even if they did renters would not rinse it out anyway). Sorry, if you are going to start a program then supply the bags or make them accessible. I will not even consider using it again until it is a “real” program and not something that is a hobby. It is a mismanaged and disgusting affair for new york city that has plenty of vermin. no thanks!
no-permits | 10 years and 1 month ago
@dork, I’m not sure you’re supposed to use bags but who knows? the city gave out the cans without instructions. it’s a good idea, but was poorly executed by the city.
dorkofwindsor | 10 years and 1 month ago
a dozen or so biodegradeable bags came with the initial cans.
jumpingin | 10 years and 1 month ago
I have to agree with the posters who point out the less than effective service provided by the sanitation dept. not sure how widespread it is, but if journalists can help bring that to the attention of the politicians, that’s a good thing. biodegradable bags are readily available online. we fill our countertop bin about once a day and drop the bag into common bins shared by the building. i have no problems with the program as designed but would like to know what program monitoring and evaluation is performed by the city.
sle2123 | 10 years and 1 month ago
One more time, these are interesting comments, but I can’t use them unless I interview you and can attribute them. Please reach out to me at sle2123@columbia.edu if you would like to set up a call. Thanks, Shannon