Save Our Compost – Sign Petition

It’s time again to SAVE OUR COMPOST! SIGN PETITION!

The City’s budget cuts eliminate the entire NYC Compost Project, including the Ecology Center, Big Reuse, Earth Matter NY, GrowNYC, and the four botanical gardens.

The proposed cuts also eliminate the development of the Canarsie Compost Site, which was promised to the Ecology Center by the City when we relocated from East River Park.

We recall the tremendous support we received in 2020 when community composting faced similar challenges. We are requesting your assistance in saving community composting once again! Kindly spare a moment to participate in our letter-writing campaign and don’t hesitate to share this call to action within your networks. And if you feel inclined, reach out to your elected officials to voice your concerns.

Annually, the Compost Project and GrowNYC collectively achieve the following:

• Diverts more than 8.3 million pounds of organic waste from landfills
• Distributes thousands of pounds of compost to green open spaces and street trees
• Engages more than 1,000 participants each year in the
• Master Composter Program, teaching the art and science of compost and providing hands-on greening opportunities
• Employs more than 115 people in green jobs in our city

Your support has made a significant difference in the past, and we believe that together, we can preserve these essential environmental programs. Thank you for your time, consideration, and commitment to our community!

Here’s what you can do to help:

1. SIGN PETITION!
2. Submit a Testimony to the Committee on Finance Hearing This hearing is about the overall budget cuts from city agencies, share what community composting is an important program to refund. Need inspiration for your testimony? Check out the template drafted by the GrowNYC Workers Collective. Submit testimony here or email testimony@council.nyc.gov
3. Phone Bank from Home Attend a phone bank-from-home session to share your concerns to council members and city officials. Attend a virtual orientation with Save our Compost volunteers.Sign up here.
4. Write or call your council member and let them know that you want no cuts to community composting.
5. Share all of these actions with your networks!
6. Read the recent media coverage:
   • Gothamist – Compost collection to disappear from NYC greenmarkets due to budget cuts, staffers say 
   • Waste Dive – GrowNYC compost workers prep for layoffs as council members vow action
   • The New York Times – New York City’s Composting Conundrum
   • The New York Times – Composting’s ‘True Believers’ Jilted as N.Y.C. Curbside Program Grows
     • Letter to the Editor – Community Composting
   • Columbia Spectator – Community composting advocates petition and rally against Mayor Adams’ proposed composting budget cuts
   • Waste Dive – Proposed NYC budget cuts ‘devastating’ for community composters