Over 2,400 Fines Handed out by Sanitation for Compost Violations; Some Council Members Object
Composting, the separation of foodstuffs from other trash, became mandatory on April 1 and in the first ten days, the Department of Sanitation handed out 2,400 summonses to violators. Some city council members want to repeal the law, calling it another money grab.
| 12 Apr 2025 | 01:08
The DSNY began enforcing the city’s new composting mandate, and violators will now be charged a fine for disregarding the new regulations. For the first six months, the law was voluntary. Now it is mandatory. (
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The city appears to be escalating its crackdown efforts against building owners who violate the new composting law even as some city council members are pushing a bill to scrap the law governing food scraps.
The Department of Sanitation as of April 11, had issued 2,463 summonses citywide, DSNY spokesperson, Vincent Gragnani, told Straus News.
The composting law became effective back in October, but it was not until April 1, 2025, that the Department of Sanitation began issuing monetary fines to property owners who failed to comply with Curbside Composting. Mayor Eric Adams announced the plan back in January of 2023, but it rolled out slowly.
Now that all of NYC has had six months of adjustment, the DSNY has officially started cracking down on landlords and residential home owners that don’t properly enforce composting, handing out a $25 fine first time offense and $300 for each additional offense.
The department hasn’t yet broken down fines per borough.
“We are seeing similar levels of compliance versus noncompliance across the city, and summonses are pretty much tracking to population and density,” said Gragnani.
The mandate entails separating leaf and yard waste, food scraps and food-soiled paper into a DSNY brown bin or any labeled bin with a secure lid. Extra lawn waste can be stuffed in a brown bag when the bin is too small.
Common Sense Caucus, a conservative-leaning group within the City’s Council, proposed legislation to replace the mandatory fines with a system to make curbside composting a voluntary measure.
“ I do not hate composting,” Republican Councilmember, Joann Ariola, told Gothamist. “I don’t like mandates, and people who want to compost should be able to compost and those who don’t should not be made to compost, especially when it is a policy that is destined for failure.”
DSNY’s Gragnani thinks voluntary measures won’t work.
“Past administrations talked a big game about composting, but none of them had the guts to get it done,” Gragnani told Straus News.
Mayor Bloomberg’s hiring of a composting plant in 2013 helped account for 10 percent of the city’s food waste, and Mayor de Blasio’s initiative aimed to replace single-use plastics with compostable alternatives. However, COVID-19 put a halt on administrative composting efforts.
Gragnani explains why this time, the program and its rigid directives are projected to work.
“No special rules, no off-days, no starts and stops–not a niche program where we act like they’re doing us a favor by participating, but a regular, easy-to-use Sanitation service,” said Gragnani. “These summonses led directly to a 240 percent increase in compostable material kept out of landfill. This works.”
He also points out that enforcement numbers are only half the story.
“These numbers prove that just making this a normal service, with normal rules and–yes–normal enforcement actually gets results to get the rat food out of landfills and put to beneficial use,” he said. “Who would’ve thought?”
“These summonses led directly to a 240 percent increase in compostable material kept out of landfill. This works.” – Vincent Gragnani, DSNY spokesperson