Scrappy Doo

Scrappy Doo

Apartment composting becomes reality

The Durst Organization is taking food scraps to a whole new level. The company's Helena apartment building on W. 57th St. will now offer residents the ability to recycle organic waste through the city's organics collection program, with food scraps, soiled paper goods and plants collected and recycled to remove them from the trash system.

According to Ron Gonen, the Dept. of Sanitation's deputy commissioner for recycling and sustainability, compostable organics make up about a third of the city's residential waste stream; removing them will save money and keep organics out of landfills while providing nourishment for city plants.

Residents can collect items like coffee grounds and vegetable scraps in containers and then dump them into large collection bins in their floor's trash room. Building staff will empty the bins and DSNY will collect the organic material five days a week.

In a statement, Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty says, "We hope that the Helena will be the first of many buildings throughout the city to offer residents a convenient way to further help the environment."

The Helena has already had a "tremendous response" to a pilot program, and now all 600 units will be able to participate.

The Durst Organization has been composting organic matter in nine of its commercial buildings and already has a landfill diversion rate of over 80 percent of the waste weight produced.

"We are extremely excited to begin this program in our residential portfolio and we believe that we will be able to replicate the success and enthusiasm for this program across the city," says Helena Durst via a statement about her namesake apartment house.

The organics from the Helena will be combined with those collected from some city schools before being taken to a local DSNY composting facility, where they will eventually be turned into compost for parks, community gardens, street trees and neighborhood beautification projects.