Top: Data points generated by selecting the “Food Retailers” category and all three available subcategories:  “Convenience stores,” “Grocery and specialty foods” and “Supercenters.” Image courtesy New York State Pollution Prevention Institute

The New York State Pollution Prevention Institute (NYSP2I) released the Organic Resource Locator (ORL), a web-based mapping tool that provides information on organic waste resources and utilization pathways in New York State. “The goal of the Organic Resource Locator is to enable efficient and increased utilization of organic resources by connecting producers of organics with those who have a use for them, diverting a valuable resource from our landfills,” explains NYSP2I. “The tool is designed for organizations in the state that produce organic waste — like grocery stores, manufacturers, restaurants, schools, correctional facilities, and hotels — or that rely on organic material for different purposes, such as waste haulers and operators of composting or anaerobic-digestion sites.” When possible, waste producer listings include key data points, such as average estimates of the volume of waste they generate. Likewise, entries for organics recyclers include the type of organics they accept and process. The user can filter by county (new feature), search for over a dozen organization types (new K-12 category), access an updated dataset of site locations and waste estimates, and download data for thousands of entities. Funding for creation of the tool was provided by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.