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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Leila Burser, Senior at New York Harbor School, on Community Composting
2:36:37
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Leila Burser, a senior from New York Harbor School, testifies about the importance of community composting and its benefits over anaerobic digestion. She shares her personal experiences with composting and advocates for continued funding of community composting programs to provide education and environmental benefits.
- Emphasizes the difference between true composting and anaerobic digestion in the city's waste management system
- Highlights the educational value of community composting programs in teaching people about waste management
- Outlines multiple environmental benefits of composting, including soil health improvement and biodiversity boost
High School Student
2:36:37
Hi, I'm Leila Burser, I'm a senior in the Marine Affairs Program at New York Harbor School.
2:36:42
So I first learned about composting from Earth Matter, the community composting site.
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Ever since then, my family and I have been collecting our food scraps and putting them into the new brown bin that my building is required to have.
2:36:52
My family, especially my mom, have gotten very, very into composting and love that it is cutting down on the amount of food waste in landfills.
2:36:59
However, my mom was devastated when I told her that her prized compost bin was not actually becoming compost.
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The only reason my mom even considered separating her food waste is community composting.
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At the New York Harbor School, I worked closely with Earth Matter.
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I learned what composting is, how it is done and the numerous factors involved and I shared this knowledge with my family.
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With earth matter, I have aided in the many steps of composting.
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I have sorted waste from any non compostable contaminants, turned the piles to provide oxygen and worked to apply the product to an urban farm.
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I have done these same steps on a much smaller scale at our school urban farm, which mimics a community composting program.
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I have learned the countless benefits of composting and separating food waste from other waste.
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Separating food scraps reduces the volume of waste in landfills and the amount of garbage that needs to be transported out of the city into these landfills.
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Although it is often assumed that organic waste in landfills decomposes and compost independently, this is untrue.
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When organic matter decomposes without proper aeration, it becomes methane, a harmful greenhouse gas.
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This process is called anaerobic digestion, which breaks down organic matter without oxygen.
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Anaerobic digestion is being harnessed in Newtown Creek Digestive Eggs, which process much of the waste collected in the city's brown bins, orange bins, smart bins, and DOE schools.
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The consequential methane is then used as biofuel.
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While this process reduces the effect of the city's food waste, it lacks many of the benefits of composting.
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Through my experience composting at school, I have learned that although it can be labor intensive and space consuming, composting is an irreplaceable tool that does so much more than just reducing waste.
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Community composting is helping people understand these benefits through educational opportunities.
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Continuing to fund community composting will help more people understand where their waste is going rather than incorrectly assuming it is being composted.
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The food collection in the city, such as brown bins and smart bins, are called curbside composting and are labeled as composting although they are not.
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Community composting programs would help to provide much needed education on organic waste.
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Additionally, these organizations provide the city with the countless benefits of composting such as decreasing runoff, increasing water retention, increasing soil health, reducing soil erosion, boosting biodiversity and creating a closed loop system within farms.