Dive Brief:

• New York City awarded eight contracts to three companies to pre-process and decontaminate source-separated organics collected by the city’s sanitation department, public records show. The contracts, issued to WM, Denali Water Solutions and American Recycling, total more than $96 million. 
• DSNY is in the process of rolling out residential organics collection throughout the five boroughs. Brooklyn and Queens have already begun receiving the service, while Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island are scheduled to begin service on Oct. 6. 
• Contractors will have the option to either compost or anaerobically digest the organics themselves or pass a pre-processed product to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which can co-digest the material. DSNY said it was unable to provide tonnage estimates for the contracts, noting infrastructure is still being put into place. 

Dive Insight:

New York City is in the process of rolling out one of the largest residential organics collection programs for a city in North America, though the process has taken some time. Last year, the city council passed a package of bills called the Zero Waste Act that required DSNY to implement mandatory source-separated organics collection. Previously, the agency had run a voluntary pilot program for organics collection which it said it would roll out citywide.

The facilities DSNY is contracting with are spread across Queens; Brooklyn; the Bronx; Yonkers, New York; and Elizabeth, New Jersey. The contracts were all awarded in August.  

“The registering of these contracts paves the way for geographic diversity in the processing of New York City’s compostable material as our universal, mandatory program goes citywide next month,” Vincent Gragnani, press secretary for DSNY, said in an emailed statement. “The operational portion of building this out, however, will take some time and come in phases.”

DSNY is obligated by the law, Intro. 244-A, to provide the city collection to all residents in October. It had previously announced a plan to roll out collection to the Bronx and Staten Island in April 2024 but pushed back the rollout after Mayor Eric Adams ordered budget cuts across most city agencies.

The destination of organics collected by DSNY has also been the subject of controversy. While some city bins are labeled “compost,” not all organics are sent to a composting facility. At a city oversight hearing in February, DSNY Deputy Commissioner of Public Affairs & Customer Experience Josh Goodman said that at that time, roughly 80% of organics were going to anaerobic digestion and 20% were going to compost. It’s unclear if that proportion has changed in the months since. He also said sidewalk bins were labeled with “compost” because it’s an easier term for city residents to understand than “beneficial reuse.”

Goodman further noted the organics processing contract procurement process could lead to greater composting capacity for the city. In January, the city announced it had expanded its Staten Island Composting Facility, increasing its capacity from about 3 million pounds of food waste processed per year to 62.4 million pounds. The facility can also process about 147 million pounds of yard waste per year, according to the city.

At least two of the five WM facilities DSNY contracted with use WM’s Centralized Organic Recycling equipment, or CORe. WM’s CORe facility at the Varick Transfer Station feeds the Newtown Creek waste water treatment plant in Brooklyn with an organic slurry, which the facility anaerobically digests to produce renewable natural gas and solids. A WM spokesperson declined to answer questions about the new contracts.

American Recycling will run organics it receives through a depackager at its Queens facility, according to CFO Dominic Susino. He said the contract his company received from DSNY was essentially a rebid for services it already performs.

Denali did not respond to a request for comment.

This is one of several changes occurring in the New York City waste system. The city is also rolling out a waste zone system that’s still shifting, as Waste Connections recently acquired hauler Royal Waste Services.