If you’d like to start recycling food scraps, coffee grounds, bones, spoiled food, food-soiled paper, and yard waste without the hassle of drop-off composting—the lone drop-off location in our area is at 6th & Spring—and your building has a common trash area, please ask your landlord/building management/co-op board to consider signing up for free curbside composting! You’ll receive a free brown bin meant solely for compost from the Department of Sanitation before curbside pickup begins in August, and they’ll arrange for regular pickups on a rolling basis, based on the number of the number of signups per neighborhood.
If you’d like to dispose of harmful household products—the list includes things like electronics, batteries, thermometers, expired medicine or cosmetics, paint, and light bulbs—that shouldn’t be thrown in the trash or down the drain into the water supply, or just left on the curb, DSNY is reopening their Special Waste Drop-Off Sites on July 10th. The site is Manhattan is at 74 Pike Slip between Cherry Street and South Street, under the Manhattan Bridge, and will be open from 10 AM to 5 PM every Saturday and on the last Friday of the month.
As always, if you’re disposing of air conditioners or refrigerators, you are allowed to leave them on the curb for pickup but only after making an appointment with the city, so they can schedule the removal of the refrigerant gas and tag it for trash pickup. You can do that by calling 311 or making the appointment online.
