Composting is coming back to New York City. The Adams administration on Wednesday will publish a rule requiring residents to separate their leaf and yard waste from trash. The rule — which will go into effect June 30 — is the first time the city has required that compostable material be separated like bottles and cans. Officials plan to roll out a curbside collection program for organic materials to the entire city by the end of 2024, the largest of its kind in the nation. New York once offered a similar program to certain neighborhoods across the five boroughs, but there were significant barriers to participation and it was cut at the height of the pandemic. Since then, the city has restarted the service in Queens and plans to bring it to Brooklyn in October. The new leaf waste rule would start fines at $50 for the first offense. It's a small step that will likely reinforce existing practices that homeowners in outer boroughs already take when tending their yards during peak foliage. Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that level of familiarity was the point: Get people accustomed to the concept that organic material should have its own bin. “People naturally separate it, it doesn’t come inside the home and then need to go back out, it doesn’t require a new behavior, it’s not gross,” Tisch said in a statement to POLITICO, adding that successful compost programs in other major cities had an “early focus on leaf and yard waste.” Still, many lawmakers want to see the Adams administration do more to ensure residents actually change their ways by mandating they also separate their food scraps. A bill that would require the city to take this step has enough sponsors to override a mayoral veto. It's slated for a vote next week, along with other “zero waste” legislation to make it easier for residents to repurpose their food and yard scraps, said City Council Member Sandy Nurse, chair of the sanitation committee. “It becomes harder to guarantee high participation if we’re not creating both a carrot and a stick,” she said in an interview. IT’S WEDNESDAY. WHERE’S KATHY? In Albany and New York City, delivering remarks at the 2023 SUNY State of the University Address and announcing investments to expand child care access. WHERE’S ERIC? In New York City, delivering remarks at the Department for the Aging’s National Older Adult Health and Fitness Day and hosting a Gun Violence Prevention Task Force youth town hall. Later, he will host a reception celebrating Jewish Heritage Month and deliver remarks at an Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month celebration.
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