New Yorkers can now get fined for not separating their food scraps. Some critics say that's not the right approach.

Property owners and landlords in New York City can now be fined $25 or more if residents are found throwing a banana peel in the trash. As of April 1, all New Yorkers must separate organic waste from the rest of their trash, similar to how metal, glass, paper, and plastic is set aside for recycling.

This is how the city is encouraging participation in its curbside composting program, where food waste is collected weekly by the sanitation department, same as the trash and recycling.

Getting New Yorkers onboard with composting will take time — and effort. When it comes to diverting food waste from landfills by composting it instead, New York lags far behind other large U.S. cities. The city recovered less than 5 percent of eligible households’ organic waste in the 2024 fiscal year. The fines announced this month are designed to boost compliance; in the first week of April, the New York City Department of Sanitation, or DSNY, issued nearly 2,000 tickets for allegedly failing to separate organics.

https://archive.ph/iLpO5

  • GreatWhite_Shark_EarthAndBeingsRightsPerson@piefed.socialEnglish
    1·
    5 days ago

    This is the problem with our species, we let those few that have a ton of resources & thus can easily do what must be for the benefit of The Living Planet & All Living Beings, just decide I want something cooler, to them, & never do it. There must be serious costs (rehabilitation & penalties) to those that refuse to do the right thing.

    In my privileged family, many households could get solar panels, electric vehicles (both of these things my own parents just will not do) & so much more, yet it is not what they prefer to do, some BS reasoning!

    Example is what at least over a decade ago, I remember watching Independent news reports on what South Africa did, when small percentage of their population (large percentage were Caucasian) was consuming too much of the water, South Africa was heading to having no more water! They put a limit on amount of water that could use & gave financial penalties for going over & hired people to travel around give citations!

    Now Iran Capital is in the same fate,