Curbside Composting

To best equip schools for success, all schools have been provided with:  

• Customized orange and/or black tilt trucks 

• Chains and locks 

• Cafeteria sorting stations (signs, sign stands, liquid buckets and colanders, large blue bins and brown bins). 

• Programmatic support from GrowNYC’s Zero Waste Schools outreach team 

• and more!  

The Office of Energy and Sustainability provided training to various school stakeholders, including Principals, Sustainability Coordinators, Custodian Engineers, Deputy Directors of Facilities, and Office of Food and Nutrition Services, prior to each expansion date. 

To request further support and training, reach out to your district-specific Sustainability Specialist or WasteSupport@schools.nyc.gov.

If your school is in The Bronx, Manhattan or Staten Island, check out the list of schools in Previous Expansions.  

If your school is in:

• Brooklyn North, check: Cohort 1 (Sep 26, 2023) 

• Queens East, check: Cohort 2 (Jan 8, 2024) 

• Queens West or Brooklyn South, check: Cohort 3 (Mar 25, 2024) 

The change in waste collections means that school buildings will be required to sort all compostable waste. This includes:  

• Food scraps + any uneaten food 

• Dirty napkins + paper towels 

• Cafeteria trays + utensils 

• Yard waste 

• Pencil shavings  

• Brown paper towels 

• and more! 

There are many benefits of composting, some of which include creating local green jobs, a cleaner community, and better containerization of “stinky” waste. Compost helps create healthy soil, which can capture rainwater and reduce the likelihood of flooding. One of the main benefits is that it reduces the amount of waste that goes to landfills, which ultimately leads to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To learn more, click here. 

Once schools receive all the materials for the curbside compost expansion and the Department of Sanitation starts the compost collection services, schools are required to participate in this initiative. This service is in addition to the mandated recycling of paper/cardboard and metal/glass/hard plastic/cartons per Local Law 41 and Chancellor’s Regulation A-850.   

All the other streams will remain the same. In other words, paper and cardboard can still be recycled in the green bin and metal, glass, hard plastic, and cartons can still be recycled in the blue bin. The main change is that all compostable material will now be placed in the brown bin, instead of going to the trash. Trash production should be much less with this change, considering approximately 50% of all waste that is produced in schools can be composted.