If you saw steam rising from Disbrow Park recently, don’t be alarmed — there wasn’t a fire.
The steam was actually coming from a massive mountain of food scraps.
Rye held its sixth annual Compost Giveback Day recently, allowing residents to pick up some of the town’s compost supply, which has been degrading into a nutrient-rich garden blend over the last year.
This compost is the good stuff, said City Councilman James Ward, co-founder and director of the Rye Sustainability Foundation.
“If you go to Home Depot and get a bag of compost, it’s just manufactured. It’s not very good,” he said. But with Rye’s compost, “you’ll take a shovel of it, and steam’s coming off of it because there’s so much microbial activity. It’s microbes are doing things that replenish the nutrients in the soil.”
At least 50 patrons, mostly home gardeners, swung by with trunks full of construction buckets, fertilizer sacks, or anything else that could hold the compost. Ward said residents are allowed to take as much as they want, though there is a loose “honor system” so no one took more than their fair share.
“It’s a fabulous amenity,” said Lucinda Williams, a retired Rye resident, while shoveling. “It’s good for the yard, and good for the city.”
Many of those who came out, unsurprisingly, have green thumbs, and either have their own heap of compost at home or separate out their food scraps to bring to the disposal center in Disbrow Park.
“It’s a lot cheaper than therapy,” said Mitch Krapes, a retired government lawyer.
Many Rye residents remember when the city came to them for recycling.
For three years, the city’s curbside waste pickup program served about 200 households and had a waiting list of around 300. But in 2022, the City Council voted 4-3 to end that program, concluding that the success of the pilot program was not clear.
Ward believes the pilot program was flawed because it wasn’t conducted scientifcally (there was no control group, for instance). But the aims of the effort were pure, he said — both environmentally and economically. Westchester County, Ward explained, charges municipalities far less for food-scrap collections than regular garbage, bringing down fees that eat into taxpayer dollars.
Since the program was stopped, he said, there has been an overall decline in recycling.
“Anecdotal evidence is very, very persuasive that when communities go from curbside to drop-off, the amount of recycling they do decreases,” he said. “We were recycling 60 tons a number of years ago, and now we’re under 50 tons, I believe.”
The council is now is considering a return to curbside pickup and is evaluating what went right and wrong last time around.
“For a family of five, it was nice,” said Bill Eggers, an institutional salesman who participated in the pilot program.
“I can go either way,” said Frank Goldszer, who said his family did not produce enough scraps to justify the hassle of pickup at his home. “I just bring them here.”
Many hope the city will bring back the program in some capacity.
“As long as it’s not burdensome, why not?” Krapes said.
