GreenMap NYC: Case Studies

This section will give you ideas about how, where and who is composting in Manhattan from organizations, schools to individuals just like you. Also see our page on Composting Businesses!

Composting innovation at the community level!

Open Road of New York
openroadny.org
East Side Community High School
420 East 12th Street
Room 158-B
New York, NY 10009
Phone: 212.460.8467 ext. 160
openroadnr@aol.com

Open Road was created in 1990 to develop programs and environments that promote community, independence and self-respect with and for young people. They develop these programs in partnership with neighborhood groups in need of new natural, educational, and recreational environments.

Open Road's Compost Program develops on-site composting systems with public schools and other institutions in NYC. They train schools, local development corporations, small businesses, community gardens, and other partners in the development and operation of the systems, and provide support until local groups can run the systems independently.

Open Road has developed and patented a low technology system, the Hot Box, in partnership with East Side Community High School and Project Roots/Intermediate School 318. The Hot Box is appropriate for urban composting, and has been installed in a wide variety of locations city-wide.

Refreshing Views!

Solar 1 and Stuyvesant Cove Park
solar1.org
24-20 FDR Drive, Service Road East
E. 23rd St & FDR Drive
New York, NY 10010
Phone: 212.505.6050
info@solar1.org

Located adjacent to the East River, Solar 1 green energy, arts and education center and Stuyvesant Cove Park have a wonderful native plant garden and many other green features. Solar 2, the new building in the works for the future, will be an 8,000 sq feet net-zero building, creating more energy than it uses.

All who pass through Stuyvesant Cove Park have the opportunity to take a look at the open compost bin system. It is located on the west side of the park along the Greenway Bike Path just south of 20th St. They use weeds without seeds, leaf litter, grass clippings, and any soil or roots and put it all into our bins and use the compost as a natural, nutrient rich fertilizer. It is a typical 3 bin system where fresh material is put into one bin. Once the material starts to breakdown it is moved to the middle bin to complete the process. The third bin is a holding are for ready to use compost. They have the potential to generate 1 cubic yard of compost 3 to 4 times a year.

In 2006, the LESEC made their bin a reality by funding its construction. LESEC are very helpful and informative and have made numerous visits to Stuyvesant Cove Park to make sure things are working properly. Stuyvesant Cove Park also has many volunteers and interns that contribute to the maintenance and upkeep.

According to the Park Manager, Melissa McDonald: "In our first year, the impacts are that we use our own park green waste for fertilizer which adds to our sustainable maintenance practices. The environment impacts are considerable when you think about the amount of fertilizer typically used in a park like Stuyvesant Cove Park which ultimately ends up in the East River". It's interesting to think about the ecological cycles at work, surrounded by the diverse and verdant garden!

More about our partners on the Composting Green Map project!

Lower East Side Ecology Center - LESEC
lesecologycenter.org
Three locations:
LESEC Garden (North side of East 7th St. bet. Avenues B & C )
Union Sq. Greenmarket Compost stand (North Plaza, Union Square Park)
East River Park Environmental Learning Center (Grand St. Fireboat House)
Phone: 212.477.4022 info@lesecologycenter.org

Lower East Side Ecology Center has offered compost collection and education programs since 1990 and together with other like-minded groups, is advocating to increase the scale of compost programs to create a greener and self-sustaining New York City. They are active with a variety of composting activities: drop-off program, indoor composting and backyard composting with worms (and even electronic waste collection/recycling!).

LESEC collects kitchen scraps from households through year-round drop-off sites: one at the Union Square Greenmarket (Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays/Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and in the Garden on East 7th Street, where drop-off is possible 24/7 through the wrought iron gate.

LESEC transports all collected kitchen scraps to East River Park for processing with a truck equipped with a lift gate to handle the barrels. LESEC collects between 1,500 to 2,000 pounds or organics per week, totalling about 40 tons of organic waste per year.

As detailed on their website: LESEC has an in-vessel compost system, which consists of 15 roughly 1 cubic yard (3x3x3) insulated plastic bins, passively aerated through a pump, which sucks the send air off the top of the vessel and delivers it to a bio-filter. Fresh air enters the bin through an opening at the bottom of the bin. The air flow insures an aerobic composting process. The in-vessel system is a batch system, meaning they fill one container at one time. One of the plastic bins holds about 1,000 pounds of materials, and they put a mixture of kitchen scraps (nitrogen rich = green material) and sawdust (carbon rich = brown materials) together with some active (hot) compost into the bin. They monitor the bin to ensure that the mixture heats up to 140 Fahrenheit, and after 15-20 days, take the composted materials out of the plastic bin for curing with red wiggler worms. The compost mix is sandwiched between a layer of 'finished' compost loaded with red wiggler worms on the bottom and the top. The whole process of making compost takes about 3 month and for every 400 pounds of input LESEC harvests about 100 pounds of finished compost. This is used by NYC Parks and is also sold at the Greenmarket for use in in both indoor and outdoor plantings.

The system is set up at East River Park, next to the Delancey Street pedestrian bridge leading into the Park. Right now there is active construction on the Williamsburg Bridge and reconstruction of the East River Esplanade going on which makes the site non-accessible to the public.

Christine Datz-Romero, LESEC's Director says: "Our program is one of the longest running compost programs in NYC. We estimate that we have approximately 750 household participating in our program. This program demonstrates that composting can be done right here in the city and we hope it inspire more communities to develop and host such programs"

What keeps Central Park so green?

Central Park Conservancy
centralparknyc.org
Compost Drive, near E. 105th St.
behind Conservatory Garden
Phone: 212.310.6600
contact@centralparknyc.org

The Mount, which has long been the site of Central Park's composting operation, is located just west of the Conservatory Garden at 105th Street. It was reinstated by the Central Park Conservancy in 1987. Most of the Park's organic waste - logs, branches, wood chips, shrubbery clippings, and leaf litter - is processed into the top-quality mulch and compost that is essential for keeping park landscapes green and healthy.

You can do it, too!

Wendy Brawer
Eco-designer & Green Map's Founding-Director
Lower East Side
GreenMap.org and GreenAppleMap.org

Wendy and her husband Ray have collected their food scraps at home for years. They use a lidded bin under the sink, lined with a re-used shopping bag. Once a week, it is taken by bicycle over to a community garden, the Greenmarket or LESEC's 7th Street drop-off site. In hot weather (or when there is no time to drop off), the bag is stored in the freezer. Moving 10-15 pounds per week, over 600 pounds per year have been diverted from the waste stream each year. They buy high quality organic and local produce so feel good about not wasting any of it!

One of their drop-off site is the 6BC Community Garden. It has a 3 bin system, and garden members turn it from one bin to the next every so often. The garden is truly beautiful, and it's wonderful to contribute to the rich soil that keeps it verdant. In addition to the composting, 6BC has a native plant grotto, solar powered waterfall, 3 ponds and upwards of 1000 different species of plants. Visit this oasis someday - it's mid block on East 6th Street, midblock between Avenues B and C. Find out about it at 6bc.org.

Composting is a great way to reduce the amount and smelliness of trash. It's also the most energy-efficient kind of recycling, and the end product can be used immediately to grow greener gardens, parks and house plants - a real win-win-win for NYC's environment.

Also see our page on Composting Businesses!