As NYC Rolls Out Mandatory Composting, Will New Yorkers Comply?
The City Council voted in June to make the separation of residential food-based garbage mandatory for the first time in New York City’s history, with enforcement set to begin next fall.
Instead of being dumped in a landfill, organic waste will now be reused for composting—the process of creating fertilizer—and other environmentally friendly means, like generating alternative forms of electricity that emit less greenhouse gasses.
But recycling rates around longtime existing requirements—which ask residents to separate paper, plastics, metal and glass from the rest of their trash—remain low, and have failed to improve over the last decade. Getting New Yorkers to comply with yet another set of rules could be an uphill battle, experts say.
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