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The New York City Compost Project has gained a lot of media attention for becoming the largest composting project in the USA that also uses only renewable energy sources.

The New York City Compost Project has gained a lot of media attention for becoming the largest composting project in the USA that also uses only renewable energy sources.

According to Our Changing Climate, the urban farm in Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY, processes over 300,000 lbs of compost every single year.

And while they have solar panels and water filtration systems in place, the most renewable energy source comes from human labor.

With a team of employees and local volunteers, the project maintains large mounds of food waste that the teams regularly rotate to introduce fresh oxygen.

The result of this is a faster-composting process and much lower carbon or methane emissions.

By covering every single pile carefully, they have also ensured that no bad smells linger on-site or in the neighborhood.

What I found most impressive is that the methods they use have ensured that they haven’t had a single rat on site in 9 years.

That should really put an end to arguments against urban composting. 

And what do they do with all that compost?

They offer it for free to the community, local park services, and schools. It’s a community project powered by the community that also helps to support and educate the community.

Hopefully, such projects will spread to other cities worldwide to make a significant dent in unnecessarily sending such waste to landfills.

Watch the full video from Our Changing Climate below:


Chris is one of GreenCitizen’s writers who has been a long-time advocate of individual responsibility when it comes to the environment. He shares GreenCitizen's passion for making the world a better place every day of the year.

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