The Lone Compost Bins

This is the lovely view I wake up to in the morning (this is NY, so it could be much worse). This view seems pretty average, no? Something, though, about it is quite interesting. Those two compost bins for food scraps and yard waste have not been moved in several weeks. The bins sit there as the weather changes and as the garbage men pass by without giving them a second glance. I don’t blame them. Hardly anyone I know uses these bins. Sometimes they’re used by the kids as a makeshift basketball hoop-type of thing. Supposedly this initiative, which is part of Mayor de Blasio’s “Zero Waste” plan, distributed these brown bins for 3.5 million residents across the five boroughs. I have seen them placed in garbage bags and thrown away. In theory, and theory is the key word here, composting is a fantastic idea. There is tons of organic matter that can be turned into energy to create a more sustainable New York. However, the current methods have hardly gained any traction and probably just cost the city several thousands of dollars (the actual program cost 15.7 million to implement. Yay budgeting!) to produce waste bins that are being tossed into the trash.