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Yet composters and supporters of the program — including former Council chairman Corey Johnson, who has called for a city-wide composting mandate — say it’s a Catch-22. Supporters say many residents want to compost, but the program isn’t available in either their area or their building. Owners of buildings with 10 or more apartments must approve the program before residents can participate.

Its proponents say a mandatory city-wide program is the best way to increase engagement, provided residents and businesses separate food scraps and yard waste from garbage. New York’s recycling mandate, which began in 1989, encouraged widespread separation of plastic, glass, metal, and paper waste. Estimates put the cost of mandatory citywide composting currently a distant goal of between $40 million and $251 million annually.

On Thursday, State Senator Brad Hoylman tried to counter the mayor’s move. invoice requires the city to collect food scraps from each residence. Adams during his mayoral campaign He told the city He said he would enact such a mandate in a campaign poll.

Even before the pandemic, the city was far behind in Mr de Blasio’s plan to enact citywide composting by 2018, although officials acknowledged that New York City would not be able to meet its zero waste goals without it.

The delay is part of why the city recycles the 3.1 million tons of garbage New Yorkers produce each year. less than 20 percentwell below other major cities such as Seattle and San Francisco that have mandatory compost separation.

By 2020, before the pandemic and seven years after curbside compost collection began in some neighborhoods, less than half of the city’s population had the option to request brown compost bins for collection by the Department of Sanitation. Inside neighborhoods with boxesonly 10 percent of residents used them.

When Mr. de Blasio suspended the program, Kathryn Garcia stepped down from her position as sanitation commissioner, citing her disagreement over the cuts in her resignation letter (she later ran for mayor). Various private groups helped fill the gaps in some neighborhoods. But they say they can’t change the scale of a city program.