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Residents Can Use NYC App to Locate 200 More Orange “Smart Bins,” to Deposit Leftover and Extra Food

Residents Can Use NYC App to Locate 200 More Orange “Smart Bins,” to Deposit Leftover and Extra Food

By Yehudit Garmaise

Brooklynites will soon be able to drop off their compostable food scraps in extra-large, bright orange containers that are called “Smart Bins” because residents can use the NYC Compost apps on their phones to locate the closets bins and to open their locked tops: 24/7.

Earlier this month, the city’s Department of Sanitation (DSNY) installed approximately 200 new compost “Smart Bins,” after the 30 the DSNY installed 30 bins citywide in December 2021.

Although the DSNY was not sure whether New Yorkers would make the effort to drop off their compostable waste, DSNY representatives reported that in the past year, every day, they found the bins filled with food and yard waste.

While DSNY trucks service them several times a week, another “smart” feature of the bins is they electronically alert the Sanitation Department when they are nearing capacity, said Vincent Gragnani, a DSNY press secretary, told BoroPark24.

“We are thrilled with their success and look forward to expanding their presence across the city,” said Gragnani, who pointed out Boro Parkers can also head to Rappaport Playground on Fort Hamilton Parkway or 18th Avenue and 64th Street to deposit their food and yard waste, which is picked up every Tuesday from 10am to 2pm.

The NYC Smart Compost program, whose motto is, “Make Compost, Not Trash,” aims to reduce the amount of residents’ leftover and unused food that heads to rot in landfills outside the city.

In addition to the new Smart Bins, starting Oct. 2, NYC will provide curbside composting service to every Brooklyn resident: including everyone in all of Boro Park, Gragnani confided.

“Organic waste currently makes up a third of what our city sends to landfills, which results in hundreds of thousands of tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year,” wrote City Councilmember Shahana K. Hanif, who last year, introduced a bill that proposed to establish a citywide curbside organics program.    

In contrast to urbanites, who usually don’t want to see, nor smell the remains after their meals, farmers consider the valuable fertilizer that results from recycling food scraps into compost to be “black gold” that supercharges gardening, horticulture, and agricultural efforts. 

Once the food scraps are delivered to and processed at treatment plants, such as Staten Island Compost Facility, the resulting compost will be used to “beautify green spaces across the city,” says the DSNY’s website. 


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