Top: Eileen Banyra, Community Compost Company and Mayor Ravi Bhalla (second and third from left, respectively), the Hoboken Green Team and residents at one of the City’s new drop-off composting locations.

The City of Hoboken (NJ) now has 12 public locations for residential food scraps drop-off. Eight new ones opened in mid-June, tripling the size of the program and creating greater accessibility for all Hoboken residents. The expansion is a component of City’s Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and become carbon neutral by 2050.  Seven of the sites are at parks; other locations include City Hall, a community garden, a street plaza, a multi-service center and “under the Viaduct.”

“Hoboken will continue to be a leader in environmental sustainability, and we’re proud to partner with Community Compost Company to substantially expand our food scraps drop-off program,” said Mayor Ravi Bhalla at a press event announcing the new locations. “Composting is a simple but effective way to help Hoboken achieve the goals of our Climate Action Plan, and I encourage residents to consider these new drop-off locations and sign-up for the program!”

After registering to utilize a drop spot, residents take a quiz to ensure compliance with the collection program guidelines. The combination for the locked bins becomes available once the quiz is completed. Materials accepted include all food (vegetable, fruits, meat and dairy products); coffee grounds; and uncoated paper products like coffee filters, paper towels, napkins. “We are honored to be partnering with the City of Hoboken to grow accessibility to food waste recycling,” noted Eileen Banyra, founder of the Community Compost Company (CCC). “We believe composting should be available to all and the resulting compost returned to local gardens and green spaces to restore soil and grow food.”

With the expansion, the City’s food scraps recycling program is estimated to avoid 5.6 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from traditional waste disposal. It also estimated to save Hoboken taxpayers up to $75,000 a year in garbage disposal fees. To date, the four existing drop spots collected 96,020 lbs of food scraps.

The City of Hoboken and CCC have partnered on programs since 2015 to turn food scraps destined for the landfill into compost for restoring soils. In partnership with the City, CCC also provides door-to-door residential and commercial food scraps collection services. Composting is done at CCC’s farm in the Hudson Valley of New York State. Compost and blends are sold through the brand Hudson Soil Company in bags and bulk.