New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has tried to cut soda consumption and ban smoking in parks is now planning to require all city-dwellers to compost whatever food they have left over.
The pilot program already commenced in May on Staten Island, the borough with the highest percentage of single-family homes, and has achieved a participation rate of 43 percent, the mayor's office said today in an e-mail.
"By recycling food waste, we can cut down on the total amount of trash we send to landfills and put it to better use as compost for community gardens or even energy," said Caswell Holloway, deputy mayor for operations, according to Bloomberg news. "This is an innovative program that's already seen success in homes on Staten Island and our public schools, and we're excited to expand it to more New Yorkers."
The new program, which would require New Yorkers to separate food scraps from other garbage, will likely be voluntary at first, but within a few years, individuals who do not compost their food waste may face a fine.
However, in five years time, Bloomberg will no longer be mayor and it will be up to his successor to either continue on with the new program or not.
According to a report in The New York Times, sanitation officials said 150,000 single-family homes would be on board voluntarily by next year, in addition to more than 100 high-rise buildings - more than 5 percent of the households in the city. More than 600 schools will take part as well.
The program should expand to the entire city by 2015 or 2016, the sanitation officials said.
