Dive Brief:

• New Yorkers are learning about organic waste’s benefits, including its ability to create renewable natural gas. Recently the Urban Future Lab in Brooklyn hosted Energy Vision, a non-government organization which led a panel on "The Power of Waste: Extracting the Greatest Value from NYC’s Organics." Waste and gas industry officials, as well as NYC’s Department of Sanitation commissioner, Kathryn Garcia, took part in the event.
• The organic waste collection program in NYC is now voluntary and serves 100,000 homes in Queens and Brooklyn. But Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced the city’s plan to have all of the Big Apple separating organic waste for collection by 2018. Organic waste constitutes 31% of NYC’s residential waste. 
• The city’s Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant processes some of the organic waste collected in its anaerobic digester tanks, helping to produce gas which is processed into natural gas.

Dive Insight:

Education was the big takeaway for the event as DSNY tries a variety of ways to ensure the public's participation and works on ways to improve separation of its waste. Recently, a Florida city struggled to get its citizens fully informed and onboard with recycling. 

"We’re learning a lot," Garcia said. "We need relatively clean material so our processors will accept it. We’re finding our material is woodier than we thought, we see plastic bags and diapers that aren’t supposed to be in there."