The Gothamist – By Liam Quigley | April 18, 2025
In a major reversal, the Adams administration has ordered New York City sanitation inspectors to stop issuing fines to most buildings that break composting rules for the rest of the year.
Curbside composting has been mandatory since last October, and sanitation inspectors began enforcing the rules by issuing fines to buildings that didn’t separate organic waste on April 1. Sanitation department officials said that the tickets were crucial to getting more people onboard, and earlier this week announced that the agency would open a new site to give back ‘finished’ compost to residents in Queens.
The reversal means that the agency is losing one of its main tools to get more people composting. The sanitation department had issued more than 4,000 tickets in just over two weeks since enforcement began, and quickly saw a bump in compost compliance.
“Make no mistake: Composting continues to be mandatory in New York City. Mayor Adams has led by example on this issue and composts daily,” Liz Garcia, a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams, said in a statement.
Garcia said that buildings with more than 30 units that get more than four warnings from the sanitation department will still be fined $100 for failing to compost. The original fine structure, which the sanitation department had worked for years to develop, called for fines that started at $25 for smaller buildings and could climb to $300 per violation for bigger residences.
“In an effort to facilitate even higher participation, we will conduct additional outreach and education on composting before issuing fines to the most persistent offenders who repeatedly refuse to compost,” Garcia said.
According to two sources close to the Adams administration, First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro was responsible for the pause.
City Councilmember Shahana Hanif of Brooklyn, who sponsored the law to make composting mandatory, said she agreed that fines should not be the main tool to ensure compliance and had emphasized education and outreach in her legislation.
“But rather than support these efforts, the Administration has undercut them,” Hanif said in a statement. “This constantly shifting guidance undermines public trust, decreases community buy-in, and ultimately threatens the program’s success and long-term cost savings.”
City Councilmember Shaun Abreu, who represents part of Manhattan and chairs the sanitation committee, sharply criticized the move to hold off on issuing fines for the rest of the year.
“Mayor Adams’ administration continues to undermine the City’s Zero Waste goals — first by cutting composting education, then by having their agency testify that they had all the resources needed for a successful residential organics rollout,” he said in a statement. “Clearly, that was a lie.”
Eric Goldstein, an attorney with the nonprofit National Resources Defense Council, said that without the teeth of financial penalties, it will be even more essential to educate New Yorkers about the benefits of composting.
“Taking an additional eight months to intensify outreach and educational efforts makes sense under the circumstances, so long as the Department makes good use of the extra time and devotes the resources needed to ensure that it accomplishes the objectives over this period,” he said.
The sanitation department picked up 3.8 million pounds of compost last week – a figure that had begun to tick up since the enforcement period began.
Garcia said the original fine structure is set to resume in 2026.
