Categories: News

With city-run composting on pause, private “microhaulers” are picking up the slack

Early on during the coronavirus pandemic, the New York City Department of Sanitation was forced to pare down its budget, putting the majority of its composting services on pause until at least summer of 2021. That means that tons of organic matter are getting diverted back into landfills, rather than repurposed for use on farms and community gardens. However, a few scrappy New Yorkers are taking the food waste dilemma into their own hands. They’re the new “microhaulers,” collecting organics from individual households for a small weekly fee, then transporting waste to intermediaries to deliver to nearby farms. For an extra $30, they’ll even deliver local produce to program participants, The New York Times reports. Trash, meet treasure.

Related Post
The Counter
Share
Published by
The Counter

Recent Posts

Grist acquires The Counter and launches food and agriculture vertical

Grist, an award-winning, nonprofit media organization dedicated to highlighting climate solutions and uncovering environmental injustices,…

6 months ago

Is California giving its methane digesters too much credit?

Every year, California dairy farms emit hundreds of thousands of tons of the potent greenhouse…

3 years ago

Your car is killing coho salmon

Highway 7 runs north-south through western Washington, carving its way through a landscape sparsely dotted…

3 years ago

The pandemic has transformed America’s dining landscape into an oligopoly dominated by chains 

One of the greatest pleasures I had as a child growing up in the Chicago…

3 years ago

California is moving toward food assistance for all populations—including undocumented immigrants

Undocumented immigrants experience food insecurity at much higher rates than other populations, yet they are…

3 years ago

Babka, borscht … and pumpkin spice? Two writers talk about Jewish identity through contemporary cookbooks.

Writer Charlotte Druckman and editor Rebecca Flint Marx are both Jewish journalists living in New…

3 years ago