Well, the grace period for New York City denizens is over. 

The one they'd had since October, where they were supposed to learn how to properly separate their food scraps in order to obey the city's new picky, picky, picky composting law.

Organic matter from the leaves in your yard to the potato peels on your cutting board no longer can go in the regular trash. As of Tuesday, the city is enforcing mandatory curbside compost collection.

“Leaf and yard waste, food scraps, and food-soiled paper should be set out inside labeled bins (55 gallons or less) with secure lids or in your DSNY brown compost bins,” the Department of Sanitation says online. “You can line your bins with CLEAR plastic, paper, or compostable bags to help keep them clean.

“Extra leaf and yard waste can be put in paper lawn and leaf bag or CLEAR plastic bags. Twigs and branches can be bundled with twine and placed next to bins and bags.

I remember well the pain in the tuchus separating things in Iwakuni was. There were little Japanese ladies whose only job was rifling through the trash cans behind the barracks in the mid-80s and writing down every single thing they found in the wrong container. The base got fined.

On my first visit to Italy to see Ebola, he had a frozen bag of bones and scraps in his freezer that I thought he was saving for soup or a neighbor's dog.

Nope. It was for the one trash pick-up when they could throw out meat scraps. If he was in a rush to or from base and forgot to get it out, he got to live with it accumulating 'til the next pick-up.

Ew.

In NYC, luckily for slow learners and people with short attention spans - and tempers - the law didn't go into effect as far as crime and punishment for infractions until the first of April 2025.

Composting has been the law of the land in New York City since October, when new regulations began to require every resident across the five boroughs to separate their organic waste and food scraps from their regular trash.

But there’s a problem: Only a small fraction of New Yorkers are complying with the rule. Public data shows less than 5% of the city’s household organic waste is currently being diverted from landfills.

The conundrum sets the stage for an enforcement blitz come April 1, when the sanitation department can begin issuing fines starting at $25 to landlords who buck the compost mandate. The rule will be enforced by inspectors who check garbage bags for illicit organic waste, according to sanitation officials.

Participation rates are particularly low in areas with large buildings where landlords haven’t bothered to set up compost collection bins for tenants. City data shows a densely populated community district in the South Bronx only put out about two tons of compost for collection at the curb in February, compared to 1,375 tons of garbage. Sanitation officials expect those numbers to climb once ticketing begins, and have pointed out that it took decades for recycling compliance in New York City to climb above 40%.

But the lack of composting compliance is also a concern in low-density neighborhoods where residents are responsible for hauling their own trash, recycling and organic waste from their kitchen to the curb.

The requirements were also, literally, driving building superintendents bonkers trying to get residents to comply as well as find room for the additional bins required in the tight squeezes a major city is known for.

...“Every building in NYC handles trash differently, but for decades they have ALL been required to sort their recyclables — and now they are required to sort their compostable material as well,” said Vincent Gragnani, a spokesman for Sanitation, in an email.

“Whether that means bins on every floor or bins in one common area such as a basement would be up to the building management. The bottom line is that food and yard waste must be separated from trash and put out on recycling day so that we can turn it into finished compost or clean energy.”

But New Yorkers haven’t traditionally been good at recycling anything. Fewer than half of paper and cardboard that could be recycled in the city actually is, and just around 41% of plastic, glass, metal and cartons is tossed in the right bins, according to a study released by Sanitation last year.

Landlords now fear that the fallout from residents not properly composting will only fall on them.

“I challenge the people who passed this law and are trying to implement it on the backs of the housing people in the city of New York to spend two weeks sorting through garbage to see how well it works, especially in a multifamily building with a huge garbage chute,” griped John Crotty, who manages multiple buildings across the city.

There have been all sorts of helpful hints through the past few grace months, all met with a healthy dose of New York skepticism.

It still smells like rotting garbage and when you come out the door you smell it pic.twitter.com/poCXgibIts

— Phlox Lady just loves Heliotrope (@JoannePhlox) April 6, 2025

Adding to the frustration is the fact the NYC has tried this crap before and all they got for the trouble was a bag o' maggots and more stench.

Because roaches and rats are too obvious. Ah, Brooklyn, where even the vermin are hipsters. via @karol https://t.co/R95SevDCGL

— J.D. Growling (@jd_nyc) June 23, 2014

So April 1 was the deadline.

*checks calender*

Yup. Done come and gone.

So...how's it going, enforcement-wise?

Everyone buckle down and straighten up?

I can’t believe I’m stressed about garbage.
Family of five, and I have to have 3 garbage bins in the kitchen.
RIDICULOUS
Once a week pickup? The city suggests storing food scraps in the freezer 🤢
Gross and unmanageable.

— Amber (@NYCdeb8tr) April 9, 2025

Three bins? Some of the apartments are like postage stamps - 500 sq ft. That's cozy.

And it looks as if this is going to be a gangbusting fundraiser of a rule for the city. Only a week old roll out and inspectors have written over 2000 tickets so far at $25 a pop (they increase with additional offenses).

The first week of New York City’s composting crackdown resulted in nearly 2,000 tickets to property owners who allegedly ignored a new mandate to separate organic waste from the rest of their building’s garbage.

The rule has technically been in effect since October, but the sanitation department initially gave only written warnings to landlords it found failed to comply. But on April 1, sanitation supervisors began issuing fines starting at $25 for the violation. They gave 1,885 summonses during the first seven days of enforcement, according to the sanitation department.

“Past administrations talked a big game about composting, but none of them had the guts to get it done,” sanitation department spokesperson Joshua Goodman wrote in a statement. “New Yorkers have been clamoring for years for a curbside composting program that’s normal. No special rules, no off days, no starts and stops.”

Really? New Yorkers have been 'clamoring for years' for composting?

Why do I doubt that?

Just a reminder to make sure to separate food scraps into different plastic bag or NYC gestapo will fine you

Also don’t forget to pay 5 cents for a paper bag at Walgreens https://t.co/kTxfxjinkX

— lex (@notaleksey) April 5, 2025

There is grumbling in the streets, especially when they see how careful sanitation workers are with all the meticulously separated comestibles.

This is how we compost in NYC!

My friend just sent me this. #abc7NY #Fox5NY @CBSNewYork ⁦@PIX11News⁩ ⁦@NBCNewYork⁩ ⁦@WNYC⁩ ⁦@nypost⁩ ⁦@WBAI⁩ ⁦@Gothamist⁩ pic.twitter.com/gjPiwTYiVU

— Max Johnson (@Max_Johnson) April 6, 2025

The garbage police and building supers have to be extra careful, too. You never know what you'll find mixed with a banana peel in that town.

Day 1 of NYC’s composting mandate and I received an image where a super was sorting the non-recycled trash (in order to remove compostable material) and he encountered a used needle.

Supers should not be forced to dumpster dive through tenant trash.

Building owners can provide… pic.twitter.com/SxB1FfSc59

— Kenny Burgos (@KennyBurgosNY) April 1, 2025

City council members must be getting an earful because no one believes it's going to make worm dirt.

NYC gave out 2,000+ composting tickets in ONE WEEK — hitting working class families with $25+ fines

This isn’t about the environment. It’s a cash grab, period.

New Yorkers want a cleaner city, but this? Just another tax for working class under the guise of sustainability https://t.co/9HhlpKbzx9

— Councilwoman Kristy Marmorato (@KristyMarmorato) April 9, 2025

Like the line from Silence of the Lambs, that's the real horror of living in a deep blue city:

It places the money in the basket...