Non Technical Summary
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Food Waste Diversion and Composting Project aims to enhance and expand food scrap drop-off and composting services for residents of NYCHA, as well as facilitate the distribution of finished compost to NYCHA community gardeners and urban farmers. This program's goals--to expand composting opportunities for NYCHA residents, reduce food waste generated at NYCHA, and recirculate compost to NYCHA resident gardeners and urban farmers--are aligned with NYCHA's long-term goals to expand access to food scrap collection services to all its residents and support resident farms, gardens, and urban agriculture programs, as articulated in NYCHA's Sustainability Agenda. This project seeks to increase outreach to NYCHA residents on the benefits of food scrap collection, as well as provide food scrap collection and composting resources to residents in EJ communities that have been historically underserved: more than 98% of resident in NYCHA campuses reside in disadvantaged communities, as defined by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST), and face intersectional and structural issues related to environmental, economic, and racial injustice.Currently, most NYCHA developments lack convenient, accessible infrastructure for composting and recycling and do not have the staffing to support the servicing of such infrastructure, with NYCHA staff already overburdened with everyday maintenance tasks. This project provides staffing for the collection and processing of organics as well as the distribution of finished compost, allowing NYCHA residents the same access to convenient food scrap collection as many other residents of NYC have. Composting supports these objectives by creating equity in access to composting opportunities by locating composting at NYCHA campuses. This grant work, which includes education and outreach and will measure participation as well as explore key complementary work (such as distribution of finished compost to NYCHA community gardens) to increase resident buy-in, will help resolve the inequity in food scrap drop-off program/composting participation, as well as establish what successful strategies can be taken from this project and replicated elsewhere.This project is a collaboration between NYCHA, Green City Force (GCF) (a green workforce development not-for-profit organization), Compost Power (an incubated organization of GCF solely focused on composting in environmental justice communities), and Brooklyn College Urban Soil Research Lab (a City University of New York public college research lab), with additional support provided by the NYC Mayor's Office of Urban Agriculture. The program proposes to continue or expand access to food scrap drop-off to an estimated 11,400 NYCHA residents, while supporting countless additional NYCHA community gardeners and urban farmers with finished compost and support. This project builds upon the successful establishment of two NYCHA composting sites at the Polo Grounds Towers, located in Washington Heights in Manhattan, and Patterson Houses, in Mott Haven in the Bronx, by funding continued staffing at these sites and adding four additional satellite food scrap collection sites, with final satellite site locations to be confirmed following outreach to the Property Management and tenant leaders.This project will also invest in leaf mulching equipment and a woodchipper to improve the efficiency of processing landscape materials, significantly boosting compost production. This work will be further enhanced by an additional position, a dedicated Compost Power Compost Liaison, who will coordinate the distribution of the finished compost processed at Compost Power to NYCHA community and urban gardens as well as NYCHA grounds, in order to reduce the use of fertilizers. Finally, this project will deepen its research on the effects of compost and leaf mulching on soil fertility and stormwater management at NYCHA sites, assessing the benefits in terms of soil health and flood risk reduction.This project will measure the grant's goals expand composting opportunities for NYCHA residents, reduce food waste generated at NYCHA, and recirculate compost to NYCHA resident gardeners and urban farmers by collecting key data that measure progress towards these goals, to be summarized and analyzed for trends monthly. Ultimately, by increasing access to food scrap drop-offs, the project aims to remove more food scraps from the waste stream, leading to cleaner communities and removing food sources for rodents, a persistent issue at many NYCHA communities. Additionally, this project will measure success through benefits provided to The food scraps processed into compost at NYCHA sites will be used to enrich the soil of GCF's Eco-Hubs and NYCHA resident community gardens, keeping this valuable resource at NYCHA sites to support the production of healthy produce, as well as attractive gardens, that enrich the community, while NYCHA residents, such as finished compost to supplement resident gardens and grounds as well as reduced rodent pressure, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from waste hauling and avoiding methane production otherwise produced by the anaerobic decomposition of food waste in landfills.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this project is to make public housing communities cleaner, safer and more climate-ready by increasing access to composting and the by-products of composting. In order to reach this goal, this project has the following objectives:Continue operations at two compost processing "hubs" and establish and service at least four satellite food scrap collection sites nearby;Expand the two compost processing sites' capacity to process landscaping material, such as leaves and woody material;Distribute compost at NYCHA urban farms and community gardens; andSupport testing of finished compost and NYCHA grounds amended with compost and mulch
Project Methods
General comment on methods:Since 2022, Compost Power has recorded data on food scrap collection, leaf composting, compost production, and distribution at its eight NYCHA composting sites. The team uses a ticker to record interactions and a scale to manually weigh the poundage of food scraps dropped off as well as finished compost. The Compost Power team then inputs all data at the conclusion of the day at the compost site digitally (using a digital form accessed on digital tablet or Smartphone). The entries from the form are then automatically added to an Excel sheet, which is analyzed monthly for trends and further insights. As a digital form is used, new metrics can be easily added to the form for the team to complete. This project will further refine the measurement, tracking, and evaluation of its food scrap collection, composting distribution, and impacts on the use of composting. During the monthly trend analysis, the team monitors for increases in food scrap drop-offs, compost distribution, and resident engagement and education and monitors for a decrease in rodent activity.Additional methods for this grant application:Monitored food scrap drop-offs: The Compost Power (CP) team staffs food scrap collection 2 days/week at the compost processing hub sites (staffed for 3-hr window) and 2 days/week of satellite food scrap collection and transportation of food scraps to hub sites.Evaluation: Informal outreach is key to providing education to residents on food scrap collection and processing. CP team staffs the drop-off points to be able to engage passerby, answer any questions, and encourage participation. CP records total resident interactions and total household drop-offs using a Smartsheet form that populates data into a Smartsheet. The CP team will also note if they employ any specific tactics to attract passerby interest (attractive posters, music, giveaways).Compost Distribution: The CP team will distribute compost and additional support to NYCHA grounds, NYCHA resident community gardens, and GCF Eco-Hubs. In addition to the practical benefits of compost to resident community garden/farm/grounds benefits, this is an additional way to generate excitement around the benefits of local compost processing to NYCHA residents.Evaluation: The CP team records total compost distributed (in pounds) for grounds and agricultural use. The team plans to add new field(s) in Smartsheet form to distinguish between the end use of the compost - whether for NYCHA grounds or resident community gardens, as well as the compost application site.Pest Management: Maintain cleanliness of food scrap drop-off area and compost processing area, eradication of rat burrows, and support with NYCHA resident community garden pest-proofing. This is key for maintaining good relations with Property Management and the broader resident community.Evaluation: The CP team records rodent sightings and count of rat burrows destroyed using the Smartsheet form.Resident and garden engagement: The CP team distributes outreach and marketing through social media, flyers, banners, and other means to reach and build awareness on the composting program.Evaluation: There will be a separate log where the CP team will log the outreach and marketing completed (along with education events below), including key information of distribution date, site, etc. Part of the monthly analysis will include monitoring for any correlation between increases in participation and outreach - any outreach that has impacts on program participation will be prioritized in the future.Resident and garden education: The CP team will provide monthly compost introduction workshops for NYCHA residents at composting hub and offsite locations on a range of topics related to food scrap recovery, composting as well as quarterly workshops on rat reduction and compost.Evaluation: The CP team will log these workshops in the log mentioned in Point #4. The entry should include key topics covered, site, # of participants, key questions, specific demographics/communities/groups engaged.