http://enviroworld.ca/residents-info/backyard-composting
The Future of
Composting in NYC
A Midterm Report on our Progress
Ariel Yardeni, Gen Hua Tan, Rishi Ajmera, Edward Pinkasik, Eleni Efstathiadis
Shaping the Future of NYC, Spring 2014
Professor MacBride
03/24/14
Table of Contents
Overview ......................................................................................................................... iii
Field Reports ...................................................................................................................iv
Updates on Initial Plan .................................................................................................... v
Concepts Discussed in the Video ....................................................................................vi
Responsibilities .............................................................................................................. vii
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The Future of Composting in NYC
A Midterm Report on our Progress
Overview:
Our group chose to concentrate on the topic of composting in New York
City and the environmental benefits it brings with it as a source of getting rid of
waste in a sustainable way, as well as acting as a source of natural fertilizer.
Through this video, we want to see if it’s possible to implement more composting
practices throughout New York and help people further understand the variety of
benefits that composting will bring.
Our group plans to interview people in the food/composting industry,
farmers that would benefit from composting, and the general population, in order
to find out their opinion on composting and its usage. The video will also
incorporate information from the articles we read in class that pertain to the
integration of composting.
The video will inform viewers about composting and its benefits to the
environment and sustainability of New York City, while also offering the opinions
of several experts in the composting/food field, farmers that might use
composting as a natural fertilizer, and people that might consider collecting their
food scraps for composting or who could potentially use composting in the future.
Combining the statistical support for composting in terms of environmental
and economic benefits from the articles with the personal support for composting
from our interviews with experts, farmers, and general people, we will also try to
persuade the viewers that composting is a viable source of fertilizer that not only
removes a large part of our waste, but saves money on alternative fertilizers and
waste conversion as well as benefits the environment.
So far, we have managed to gather articles that support the idea of
integrating composting into New York’s society. We also sent out emails asking
for “email interviews” with “Build it Green NYC,” “Composting Hotline” and
“Compost in the Bronx.” We will also go to the Union Squares Farmers Market on
April 6th to interview the farmers. Finally, we have decided to participate in a
composting event ourselves to get a feel for what the experience is like. We hope
that this video will inform and persuade viewers of the multiple benefits that
composting has to the environment and economy of New York City.
Field Reports:
So far we have sent out emails to “Build it Green NYC,” “Composting
Hotline” and “Compost in the Bronx.” In these emails we introduced ourselves,
stated the purpose of our project and asked if we would be able to conduct
interviews via email. We have formulated interview questions for the online
interviews, the Farmers Market personal interviews and the interviews regarding
common peoples feelings on composting sites. Much background research on
composting has been conducted as well. We changed the date of the Union
Square Farmers Market personal interviews to Sunday, April 6th. No filming will
be done until April 6th, however we will be editing and researching until that point
to make sure we ask questions that will be more informative to viewers.
As we mention in this report, we are interested in gathering a variety of
information from different sources about composting. It’s important to note that
now we want to interview multiple stakeholders at the Farmers Market; compost
organizations, farmers who may potentially use composting or may already
practice composting, and shoppers, who may or may not save their food scraps
for composting use. This way, our research will cover the broader picture of the
role composting plays in New York and the recognition it gets from different
stakeholders.
Updates on Initial Plan:
While working on this project we have been following our initial plan for the
most part, however we have not been afraid to take liberties in making some
changes. As a group we decided that we should solely focus on composting and
not do a dual concentration that includes the health benefits organic food. By
additionally including organic food, our project will not be focused. We want to
take the topic of composting and really explore it, without being sidetracked with
topics that are not directly related. We also have changed the date of filming at
the greenmarket in order to better prepare.
Formulating the questions we want to ask in the interview required deep
thought, because we challenged ourselves to formulate the most engaging
questions possible. It is important to have questions that are not leading the
interviewee in a certain direction; this way there is no question bias on our part.
Instead, questions must be open-ended in order to allow the person interviewed
to speak as himself or herself, using their own words and opinions.
We conducted extensive research on potential interviewees so we can
tailor questions based off of the information we know about them, to get the most
out of shorter interviews. When people specialize in certain areas of compost, it
is important that we tailor questions to be specific to their expertise, this way they
have the opportunity to share that specific knowledge. We decided we want to
broaden our horizons and not just interview compost experts. As stated above,
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we will also be interviewing common people, and asking them their feelings on
living near a composting plant or practicing composting. We want to see if the
public has strong opinions about composting, and how extensive their knowledge
about composting is. We also want to see if there are stigmas associated with
compost plants being brought into a person’s community, such as the extent of
the odor that will be given off.
To gain deeper insight into this project, we are going to take a group field
trip to the Brooklyn Compost Garden the beginning of April. A specific date will
be set once the Brooklyn Compost Garden posts a schedule for open times in
April. We will hold an interview on site, but most importantly we will engage in
composting for an afternoon!
Concepts Discussed in the Video:
The concepts being dealt with during this project are the ability of
composting to be an environmentally friendly and sustainable way to decompose
materials. We will be examining and analyzing how we can implement
composting practices, on a larger scale, into society. The necessary connection
to be made would regard the demand for composting with the potential for
demand that can be created. This would involve identifying areas where
composting can play a bigger role and further get integrated into society. In a
study conducted by Cornell University, entitled, "Agricultural Composting: A
Feasibility Study of New York Farms" Eileen Fabian created a focus around
Upstate New York farms and found that disposal costs have consistently been
rising. These disposal costs range from $50 to $100 per ton and therefore the
practice of composting would prove to be far more economically viable for the
farms. It’s an interesting take on the methods to improve the operations of farms
and how to better incorporate composting into society. As farms run on paperthin margins, even small cost saving methods will prove to be valuable.
We want to explore the opportunities to incorporate this practice into
communities and build more sustainable environments. Through the use of
interviews and in-depth analysis we want to make a decision if New York City is a
rational environment to pursue composting, or if we should pursue its viability
outside of urban settings. So far, we have found certain information that is
pushing us to consider its value to New York City’s landscape. According to the
New York City Department of Conservation website, composting reduces the
amount of waste that ends up in landfills, suppresses certain plant diseases, and
prevents soil erosion. While these incentives are all very enticing to New Yorkers,
the biggest challenge in implementing composting practices is the actual
infrastructure and logistics that must be laid out. Our group is focused on
speaking with individuals and determining whether or not the value from
composting will outweigh the cost and effort of the implementation.
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In terms of connecting concepts, the group’s goal is to identify the needs
of New York City and identify how composting procedures could potentially fulfill
those needs. Those unfulfilled demands will determine at what level composting
could be included in our society and whether or not society will accept it. We
speak a lot about the sustainability of cities and waste removal, so this video will
provide an in depth look at a process that can improve the sustainability of the
way we remove certain wastes.
As we are transitioning into a future concerning sustainability, our video
will try to capture specifically the compost aspect of sustainability in New York
City. Much like our class discussions on turning waste into renewable energy,
organic waste is another way of reducing waste and generating a product
(fertilizer) that is useful. On average, New Yorkers produce “more than 14 million
tons of trash… [In which] Nearly 29% of that waste is suitable for composting,”
according to NYC.gov. As one can see, there is strong potential to renovate our
waste and transform it into a useful resource. The push towards composting in
the city, however, is very slow even with the establishment and efforts of the
NYC Compost Project, “a citywide program created by NYC Department of
Sanitation’s Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse and Recycling (BWPRR) in
1993 to provide compost education and outreach to NYC residents, nonprofit
organizations, and businesses.”
The biggest obstacle to the above citywide project on composting is
getting New Yorkers to participate in this effort, much like how recycling paper
and metals are done—but with organic food. Not only New Yorkers, but also
businesses in New York too should adapt some sort of policy to recycle their food
waste because the city does not handle it (NY Times). There are little incentives
for them to recycle their food waste if no one is to regulate or mandate it.
Currently, the city administration is intending to push that into a legislation to
ensure businesses recycle their food too. These two areas of concerns lead to
the questions, what then should the role of our city government play and how
much should they be involved? Our video/interviews will put these questions into
professionals’ perspectives in an attempt to engage and really raise awareness
of the city’s environmental efforts towards composting. With enough efforts and
participants, the compost generate could be sold and if there’s excess, quite
possibly they can be used in Central Park, New York/Brooklyn Botanic Garden,
and even the streets where young trees are planted since many New Yorkers do
not have their own backyard/garden.
If composting is indeed going to gain momentum, compost sites will
certainly be needed throughout the city, much like anaerobic digestion sites. The
same issue of both is that communities are likely to rally against setting up the
site in their neighborhood. One enlightening design or plan is to create “Compost
Islands” in harbors across the boroughs (Emily Thomas of Huffington Post). It is
a very ideal vision that would need much financial resource and planning to
execute and realize. In addition or in supplement to this future vision, our
video/interview can bring up what other future visions the professionals have for
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New York’s composting future. Would those visions involve some compost sites
in the city or outside of it?
In short, the focus of our video is to bring forth composting as a significant
player towards sustainability in the city. We want to present the benefits of
composting in the city, its current situation of composting (projects), the issues
involved in New Yorker and business participation, and how in the future we can
possibly further integrate the recycling process of biodegradables in the city to
maximize the reduction of waste to landfills.
Responsibilities:
The responsibilities for work on the current project do not differ much from
those outlined on our initial proposal, however, we will use this section to
elaborate on the progress being made by each individual group member to
complete the video tasks. We have been actively communicating with one
another to make sure everything is completed in a timely manner and that the
project will be of the highest quality possible.
Eleni and Ariel were initially given the tasks of being survey writers and
interviewers. They have followed up with contacting various people to interview,
and Ariel has been researching the composting programs that open at
greenmarket locations. At first, we were under the impression that it would be a
good idea to only speak to the greenmarket compost stand at the Union Square
Greenmarket, but we are now considering expanding our options to other
greenmarkets. For the sake of convenience, we plan on filming our own
interviews, instead of asking other students to film, but they will come out to be
the same quality. Both students are still looking for more options of who to
contact to make a more enriched and informed project, however we are well on
our way to starting filming next week (week of Sunday, March 30th).
Rishi and Gen are our assigned researchers, and they have been working
to make sure the project cites appropriate research and information from a
variety of resources to give an overview of composting in NYC. They have cited
studies conducted by Cornell University on disposal costs of farms, information
released by the NYC Compost Project, and so forth different stakeholders in the
composting world. They both have been actively contributing to make sure our
project is as informed as possible, which is a great help to the whole group
because we wish to contain the most accurate and relevant information possible
in our video.
Edward has been assigned the task of editing the video, which has not yet
started because our filming has not been completed, however he has taken on
the task of aiding Rishi and Gen in their research. He has cited articles such as
“Foodworks, a Vision to Improve NYCs Food System” and explained why this
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information is relevant to our project. Furthermore, he has put thought into what
the video will say and what contribution it will make, which will help prepare him
for selecting the best film possible and editing the video to effectively
communicate ideas about the future of composting in NYC.
The group dynamics are playing out extremely well, because we are each
contributing to the sections we assigned ourselves in the beginning, as well as all
contributing to help the growth of the project overall. Now that we are
approaching the time to go and film, the pace at which we complete the video will
quicken because we will have materials to work with that can be finally be edited
into an informative and professional video.
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Bibliography
1) Fabian, Eileen E. "Agricultural Composting: A Feasibility Study for NY
Farms."Agricultural Composting: A Feasibility Study for NY Farms. Cornell
Composting, 1 Feb. 1993. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
2) "Disclaimer." Composting of Organic Waste. New York State Department of
Conservation, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
3) Thomas, Emily. "'Compost Islands' Could Help Solve NYC's Trash Problem."
The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 05 Mar. 2014. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
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Ariel Yardeni
[Class, Semester]
[Teacher Name]
[Insert Date]
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