Did you know that New York City curbside compost collection is in jeopardy of being cut from the city’s budget due to the COVID-19 crisis?

This cut comes after the NYC Greenmarket compost drop-offs sites were already suspended. 100 Million Pounds of waste will go to landfills this year instead of ending up as compost.

We need a strong Jewish voice to save our compost in New York City. Here’s the facts and what you can do, time is running out.

THE FACTS

Until two weeks ago, NYC was home to the largest public composting program in the country, diverting more than 100 million pounds of food waste from landfills and converting it to compost to be used in NYC’s community gardens. Due to budget cuts from coronavirus, the mayor has decided to cut the program, meaning millions of pounds of additional trash will fill our landfill, most impacting the communities already hardest hit by environmental injustice and COVID-19. 

However, because budget decisions must go through a negotiation process, all hope isn’t lost. We need a strong showing of public support for composting, which is one of the biggest sources of waste. The biggest action is happening TODAY, Thursday, May 21st and we need the Lab/Shul community and broader Jewish community speak up on why public access to composting is so important. We need to speak up to save our compost.

THE ACTIONS

TODAY, THURSDAY, May 21st:

  • Submit testimony for the City Council’s public budget hearing. You can give written or live testimony via the Council’s website at council.nyc.gov/testify. Let them know why composting matters to you, and why they should vote to support continued funding for community composting programs now. The deadline to submit testimony for this hearing is Sunday, May 24th at 9:30 AM.  
  • Contact your City Council member by phone or email (cc financetestimony@council.nyc.gov).
  • Send a Message to the Budget Director of the Office of Management & Budget.

The NYC Community Composting Coalition has offered sample testimony for examples you can personalize, and you can view the social media toolkit for graphics to share on your social media channels.

THE IMPORTANCE

Why does this matter? Amanda Lindner, the ‘Environmensch’ and Lab/Shul Green Team Leader shares her powerful story on why saving our compost is critical to community health.

Having grown up in a mainly immigrant, working-class neighborhood on Long Island, I have felt the first-hand impacts of environmental injustice. I grew up in what’s known as a food desert with little access to fresh/healthy food. The closest thing I ever had to a Farmer’s Market was a man who sold watermelons out of a pick-up truck across the street from my home. My closest park was closed my entire childhood – first, due to gang violence and later, it remained closed due to toxic dumping. As a child, I was sad that I did not have access to the things it seemed other kids had – things like a safe park and healthy food. When I grew up, I learned that my experience wasn’t unique at all. Millions of children and families across the US don’t have access to fresh food, parks, or even clean air and water. I learned about environmental injustice and how the roots of racism, xenophobia, and classism not only impact our daily lives, but our health. I believe our health outcomes should not be determined by our zip codes.

When I moved to New York City five years ago, it was the first time I had regular access to a farmer’s market. It was also the first time I had ever seen public composting. It made me proud to be a New Yorker and to see my city step up to be a leader on the environment. Even though the curbside compost program was not yet available in my neighborhood (the program had been glaringly only available in wealthier and mainly white parts of NYC’s boroughs), dropping my compost at the farmer’s market each weekend gave me a sense of pride knowing that I could make a difference each week for my community and gave me autonomy to take my carbon footprint into my own hands. At a time when our public health is most at stake, further filling our landfills with unnecessary food waste and releasing tons of methane into our atmosphere, will only further worsen health outcomes, especially for those who are most vulnerable. Too many people have already died of an avoidable illness. I want to live in a healthy, sustainable, and environmentally-just city. Keeping composting free and available to the public brings us a giant step closer to achieving that.

Of course, saving our compost isn’t the only thing that’s needed to save our planet – it is one of many actions we must take – but, Judaism teaches us that while it is not our obligation to complete the work, neither are we free to desist from it. We must ask ourselves, if we are not the ones to speak out for our health and communities, who will? So, here is our chance to speak out.

Thank you for being a part of the Green Team and taking the time to #SaveOurCompost.