Most of the waste that is generated on Long Island’s East End is eventually hauled out-of-state.
A pilot program in the Town of East Hampton seeks to encourage residents to recycle a significant portion of that waste that is actually a valuable resource: food scraps.
“Food scraps contain a lot of nutrients that were taken to grow the produce and extract it from our soil,” Gloria Frazee, who is on the town’s Energy and Sustainability Committee, said. “So, our soils end up being depleted and compacted and we need to return those nutrients to the soil.”
The East Hampton Compost program will accept food scraps from residents at two farmers markets this summer in exchange for free compost — as a way to save taxpayers money and help protect the environment.
Food scraps will be composted at the East Hampton Recycling Center, diverting organic waste that would eventually contribute to climate change.
Twelve percent of New York’s greenhouse gas emissions come from waste management. Methane, for example, permeates for up to 30 years after trash is burned into ash for electricity at incinerators or disposed of in landfills.
The need to find an alternative method to reduce and reuse trash could become pressing with the adoption of New York’s next solid waste plan, which could discourage local governments from transporting waste out-of-state and other disposal methods that intensify the warming of the planet. In addition, the Brookhaven Landfill, which is home to much of the rest of Long Island’s waste, is scheduled to close over the next few years once capacity is reached.
It’s estimated that East Hampton spends $300,000 annually to truck waste from homes, restaurants and agriculture to waste-to-energy plants, mostly off of Long Island. “We have so much waste on the East End of Long Island. It's really amazing,” Frazee said. “And if you look just at food waste from the Town of East Hampton, you're looking at about $20 million a year of food that is purchased and thrown away.”
Town Board Member Cate Rogers, who launched the program alongside ReWild Long Island, said she values how composting saves water, and reduces the need for fertilizers by adding nutrients to the soil.
Compost can also help healthy, spongy soil retain water, which can prevent floods and beach erosion. “So that's also important for all of Long Island, certainly here on the East End, where we want to prevent flooding and erosion that harms our waterways and beaches,” Rogers said.
“We’re looking more at reducing food scraps and waste not as a particular single item, but as part of building a healthier ecosystem within East Hampton,” Rogers said, “and then looking at the larger regional ecosystem of the Peconic region of the five towns.”
In May, Riverhead introduced a town-wide food scrap program after last year’s pilot program in Calverton, and the Town of Southold has had a similar program in place since 2020.
While New York City now requires residents separate their food waste from regular trash, food scrap programs on Long Island are small, scattered and rely on partnerships between municipalities and grassroots organizations.
The Long Island Organics Council “is building a network from across Long Island to develop sustainable management of non-edible organic materials” through composting and anaerobic digestion according to co-founder Judy Greko. She said a month after launch the Riverhead program had about 55 participants.
But it is not easy.
During a June meeting of its steering committee, the council heard from Anti-Landfill Community Composting — part of the Brookhaven Landfill Action and Remediation Group (BLARG), which has advocated for the immediate closure and cleanup of the Yaphank facility that looms over their community — to encourage an environmental justice approach.
“We compost because Black lives matter. Communities of color have always borne the burden or the brunt of incinerators and landfills,” said Lynn Maher with BLARG.
“We compost because of the leadership in the Town of Brookhaven, and, to put it mildly, the Town of Brookhaven has been very resistant to forming any kind of comprehensive municipal solid waste plan,” Maher said. “We have a waste crisis and we don’t want to ship our garbage to somebody else.”
Instead, the town has backed companies to enhance landfill gas mitigation projects, industrialize anaerobic digestion and emissions-reducing biofuel technologies and build more waste transfer stations to haul trash off of Long Island.
Monique Fitzegald, co-founder of BLARG, points to state data that shows communities of color are disproportionately burdened by waste disposal and transfer infrastructure, including her hometown of North Bellport and Wyandanch, which is at the foot of a Covanta waste-to-energy plant in Babylon.
“Before we can bring the idea of composting, we also have to make sure that people in communities like North Bellport have access to food and fresh vegetables and fruit. And if you are living in a disadvantaged community, you don't have that extra time to just devote to learning about composting,” Fitzgerald said. “Sometimes folks are working two or three jobs.”
BLARG and the Long Island Organics Council want state and local governments to incentivize community-based composting programs to expand environmental health and social equity.
Ways to learn more
- In East Hampton, the Eco Table at the Sag Harbor Farmers Market will accept limited food scrap drop-offs each Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon, and the ReWild Eco Table at the Springs Farmers Market will receive drop-offs each Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. from July through late September. Additional pop-up locations may be added.
- In Riverhead, the Youngs Avenue organic waste facility in Calverton is open from Thursday to Monday from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- The Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association will host a discussion on “What Are You Doing With Your Food Waste” at its monthly meeting on Monday, July 31 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Veterans Park in Mattituck.
- The Anti-Landfill Community Composting, which is a part of the Brookhaven Landfill Action and Remediation Group, meets Saturday mornings during the summer at the Bellport Community Garden.
- Grounds For A Peel is among the few state-registered food waste collection services that operates on Long Island. For $425 a year, the service picks up residential organic waste in exchange for compost soils.
