Yonkers brings composting home

Yonkers has expanded its recycling program to include backyard composters. The city was offering a limited supply of compositing bins free to residents and planned to offer both composting bins and food scrap collection kits for sale at its recycling center at 735 Saw Mill River Road.

“Expanding our recycling program to include residential backyard composters is an important measure that will enable Yonkers household members to directly participate in further reducing waste and greenhouse gas emissions,” Mayor Mike Spano said while loading a composting bin with leaves. “My family composts in our yard, and I encourage other households to do the same in our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint. Let’s continue to be leaders in creating a cleaner, greener, more sustainable Yonkers.”

The backyard composting bins can be used for cardboard, leaves, grass clippings, annual plants, wood ashes, and other organic yard waste, as well as for vegetable and fruit peelings and coffee grounds. It typically takes from two to six months for compose to be usable as an addition to garden soil.

In a related effort, the city’s food scrap recycling program has collected nearly eight tons of food scraps since May of this year, keeping that material out of the solid waste stream and using it as a source of nutrients for plants.

The city’s Public Works Commissioner Tom Meier urged residents to “take part in food scrap recycling and backyard composting to help protect our environment, save taxpayer dollars and receive the benefit of free, high quality compost that builds healthy soil and resiliency.”