New Composting Mandate Puts Pressure on Co-op and Condo Boards

The city’s new composting mandate is forcing co-op and condo boards to strategize ways to make it both convenient and hygienic for residents to recycle food scraps. Beginning in April 2025, buildings face fines of between $25 and $300 for failing to separate compostable items from trash. This raises the stakes, requiring residents to be educated and engaged and, if necessary, implement penalties for noncompliance. “I’ve been pleasantly surprised how people want to do the right thing when given the opportunity,” says Martin Robertson, resident manager at The Oro, a 300-unit luxury condo in downtown Brooklyn. 

EARLY ADOPTERS SHOW THE WAY

Robertson introduced composting at The Oro under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s voluntary program and says communication is the key to success. “You’re going to need more than a town hall meeting, more than just emails; you’ll need continuous reminders everywhere,” he says. He rotates posters with composting instructions in the elevator periodically to avoid residents getting bored of the same image. Flyers and newsletters need to explain where food scraps should go as well as what can and can’t be composted. 

At Schwab House, a 636-unit co-op on the Upper West Side, residents have been composting for years. Rick Schulman, head of the building’s energy committee, even maintained the program during the pandemic by contracting with a private organics service. The co-op’s compost bins are in the basement next to the laundry rooms. “It’s convenient, and we make sure everything stays in the same place and people know where to go so they create a routine,” Schulman says. The brown bins are rotated in order to be regularly rinsed and cleaned. 

LARGE-BUILDING SOLUTIONS

Large buildings have several effective options for managing their composting programs. Many choose to keep brown bins in basement areas near elevators, while others add collection sites in refuse or compactor rooms. The NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) also allows the bins to be stored on the sidewalk flush with the building or within 3 feet of the property line. 

At 300 West 30th St., a 69-unit condo in Chelsea managed by Highrise Property Management, full-time super Dardan Ibishi has developed a system where he monitors bins daily and transports collected material to a central basement bin.  

Meanwhile, The Oro opts for curbside bins, finding this arrangement most efficient for its needs. Some larger buildings are also asking residents to individually bag their compost, especially if collection bins aren’t lined. At London Terrace Towers, a four-tower 720-unit co-op in Chelsea where the bins aren’t lined with plastic bags, general manager Brendan Keany says rinsing and rotating the brown bins works just as well. “We’ve had no problems with rodents or pests,” he says. 

SMALL-BUILDING SOLUTIONS 

In smaller buildings or those with a part-time super or no staff, educating residents and being consistent with your compost strategy is key. For the most part, residents are already used to bringing their trash and recycling to one location, and food scraps are just another element of that sorting process. 

At a 26-unit walk-up in Manhattan, residents are dropping their organics into a small top-loading chest freezer lined with a mattress cover bag, which is later emptied by a part-time porter. Other buildings have created designated areas where residents can wrap their compost in old newspapers, which helps absorb moisture and control odors. Some have installed exhaust fans near bins to manage smells, while others rely on carbon filters or baking soda. The key to success in smaller buildings lies in regular maintenance and bin rotation. 

TO LINE OR NOT TO LINE 

DSNY encourages buildings to line compost bins with a compostable or clear plastic bag. The facility where the compost ends up has machinery to separate the food waste from bags. Ibishi uses plastic bags in the bins and says tightening the bags when they are full — as well as keeping the lid secure — helps prevent odors. 

Regardless of whether you line your building’s bin, the DSNY requirement is that organic matter is separated from trash. This doesn’t prevent buildings from finding alternative ways to compost food scraps. DSNY has introduced “smart bins” in select neighborhoods, which are accessible via the NYC Compost app and open for food scraps 24/7. There are also community-based drop-off sites and ways to compost at home, whether it’s using a worm bin or a high-tech alternative.

RESIDENT CONVENIENCE

One challenge for buildings is to make composting convenient. At a 77-unit postwar co-op on the Upper West Side, countertop containers were distributed to all apartments when the compost program began, and residents have continued to use them or developed their own systems, such as freezing food scraps before disposal. Several years ago, at a different building, Robertson operated a VIP option whereby residents could drop off their kitchen compost containers in the lobby as they left in the morning and staff would empty and rinse them so they’d be ready for pickup later in the day. Not everyone took advantage of staff help, however, with many residents dumping their food scraps themselves. 

FINANCIAL BENEFITS

While composting requires some initial investment — DSNY is providing only one free bin per building — the long-term benefits can be substantial. The Oro, for instance, saves approximately $6,000 annually on trash compactor cleaning, fewer bags and labor costs. Buildings also report using fewer garbage bags, as traditional bags often tear under the weight of food waste. Worker safety represents another significant cost saving: Robertson maintains 10 compost bins, each holding about 70 pounds of kitchen waste. “If we remove 700 pounds of weight from our normal garbage collection, that’s less opportunity for a workers compensation case, which can cost up to $100,000,” he notes. Buildings have also noticed reduced plumbing maintenance costs as fewer food scraps end up clogging waste lines.

ENFORCING THE RULES

Once composting begins at your building, you’ll need a mechanism to enforce the practice. Many buildings now incorporate composting rules directly into their governing documents, requiring new residents to acknowledge these policies. 

  “You have to give these policies some teeth,” Robertson says. When violations occur, building staff document the issues with photos and issue warnings, which can be followed by fines starting at $50. Some buildings have found success with floor-wide notifications about potential pest problems, while others regularly monitor disposal areas.

Improper recycling in a large building is often identified by a jam in the compactor chute. Robertson says his staff will try to figure out which resident is recycling incorrectly. While this might be impractical with food scraps, if a heavy trash bag breaks because it is full of items that should be going into the compost, the building staff will do what they can to identify the unit it comes from. 

 “We will take pictures, show how we identify it and send out a notice,” Robertson says. If it’s too difficult to identify the culprit, Robertson says that staff will knock on doors and post notes saying someone is improperly composting and the entire floor is in danger of getting roaches. “That usually works,” he  adds.