Christina Delfico, one of our long time RIGC members writes:
Now is a great time to take action!
Please take a moment to send an email to the City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, he has the power to add the Food Scrap Drop Off program back into the budget that the Mayor has proposed cutting. You may also copy Ysabel Abreu, in the Manhattan Borough President's office. Feel free to use the sample below to copy, cut, paste or even personalize a message to Corey Johnson. You may ask children to send in art, too!
Email:
SpeakerJohnson@council.nyc.gov
CC:
yabreu@manhattanbp.nyc.gov
Subject: Fund & Safely Reopen NYC’s Compost Drop-Off Sites
Dear Speaker Johnson,
An unprecedented pandemic can understandably demand full focus and make environmental advocacy for smart programs seem less relevant and pale in comparison when lives are being lost, so I write knowing this is the context of our times.
Respectfully, this is an urgent plea that you continue to recognize the city smart compost & Food Scrap Drop Off (FSDO) collection program, and make sure to add it in the city budget so that it is not cut.
Our community has come to understand and embrace the fact that food scraps are not trash and are a valuable asset when transformed into compost to amend our neighborhood soils. In addition to creating local jobs, reducing the use of fossil fuels to truck scraps to faraway landfills, the knowledge that food scraps, or organic waste, can release methane gas when in landfill which is more harmful to our air than carbon dioxide, makes this one of the smartest city programs in existence. Please advocate to keep this program.
With major budget cuts threatening DSNY’s curbside compost program, we’re asking for your leadership to ensure that our community drop-off sites can be maintained and expanded starting May 5, so there is no lag in public compost collection and we can keep diverting food scraps from landfill.
Thank you in advance for fighting to fund this essential service and offering New Yorkers an alternative to throwing our food scraps into the trash and exporting them to landfills.
Appreciate all you do to protect the air, land & water and keep New Yorkers healthy.
Respectfully,
For more news, please register here to tune in to the virtual #SaveOurCompost Town Hall next Tuesday 5/5 at 6pm to find out more.
To recap and provide the initial petition link: State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright posted this announcement in one her 4/24/20 Special Update
Neighbors Fighting For Composting Service Restoration During Pandemic
Neighbors have reported to our office that many essential waste reduction initiatives are going by the wayside. On the UES and on Roosevelt Island, residents have worked to rally neighbors to participate in the food scrap drop off and compost program. The program saves on trucking to landfill and avoids placing methane gas producing organics in the waste stream to the tune of over 300,000 pounds a day according to DSNY. They are asking for neighbors support on this petition: Sign here.
Food scraps and yard waste organics are not trash, they are natural resources! If these items are taken to landfill, they become global warming greenhouse gases. We know the wonderful value of composting first hand from our garden club experiences. Let's take our city and planet back to far better than normal after this crisis!