After reading about Battery Park City Authority's dog waste composting program, I was very interested to find out more. It was amazing to see not only the dog waste compost program but also how they process approximately 75,000 lbs (approximately 34 metric tonnes) per year in their indoor composting space and make compost tea – all within such a highly dense area of New York City.
Battery Park City is located along the Hudson River on the southern end of Manhattan. It is 92 acres in size, with 36 acres of that being parks and public spaces. Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) is a state authority that oversees the neighbourhood under the guidance of the State of New York.
Brendan and Jasmine from Battery Park City Authority showed me the various compost programs that BPCA runs, including food scrap collection parks, coffee shops and residential sites. One of the sites is Gateway Plaza, a luxury waterfront housing complex, with collection bins for residents to deposit their food scraps in. The complex was built in 1983, has 1,700 apartments and is owned by the City of New York, and managed by Battery Park City Authority. This is the most expensive neighbourhood in the whole of the US and the rent from the apartments funds BPCA’s sustainability initiatives.
Once back at the warehouse the food waste is hand sorted to remove contaminants before mixing it with the carbon material. All carbon materials are sourced from within Battery Park City itself including leaves, woodchips and shredded paper.
BPCA uses an Earth Flow in-vessel composting system and the material is loaded in at one end and the auger aerates and gradually moves the compost through the machine before it is unloaded at the other end. This process takes 2 - 4 weeks and then it is loaded into bonar bins for 3 months of further curing. The team uses the compost in parks and to make compost tea for applying to trees in spring and autumn. This is made using a Geotea compost tea machine, in which compost, vermicast, fish emulsion and molasses are combined, brewed and aerated for 2 days and then diluted half and half before being used to inoculate soils with beneficial fungi and bacteria.
It is remarkable to consider that these operations occur in a small warehouse space – right in a very dense part of Manhattan. The use of shelving to store the carbon material, compost tea and highly efficient operations means that lack of space has not deterred this group of professionals from creating and using compost locally and getting the best value from the resources at hand.
In addition to food and garden organics composting BPCA has also been composting the dog waste collected at their dog off-leash parks for over 3 years. All three dog parks within BPCA area have collection bins. Each collection point has a poop scoop, sheets of newspaper to wrap the poop in, a bin to drop it in and a sign explaining the program.
The dog poo is composted separately at another facility and although it goes through a thorough hot compost process, sits for a year to mature and is tested twice for pathogens, the resultant compost is not used on lawn areas or other areas that people might come into contact with due to public perceptions and misgivings. Therefore the compost is used instead to improve the soil in areas such as medium strips along the highway. It is great to see this valuable resource being put to good use instead of producing greenhouse gases in landfill.
Also located within the BPCA area is the Liberty Community Garden. Visiting this site was my way of paying homage to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. I had read about the history of this garden and how it was impacted by the disaster that befell all of New York at that time. The production of compost brought about beautiful rebuilding and healing, as in the words of Terese Loeb Kreuzer:
“After the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, the garden ... was knee-deep in debris. A newspaper account of that time quoted McCormack as saying, “I came out to look at my garden and everything was coated with three to four inches of gray dust.”
The plots closest to the World Trade Center were completely destroyed. A more southerly section was salvaged. Gardeners from the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy removed ash from the plants by hand.
Compost was needed but composting supplies had been decimated. In a gesture that is still remembered by the Battery Park City gardeners with great emotion, gardeners from Seattle ... made compost from a million flowers that had been left at a vigil for those who died on 9/11 and transported the compost to Battery Park City. In September 2002, the Liberty Community Garden was rededicated with two Seattle City Council members in attendance along with gardeners from both cities.”
Looking at the flowers blooming and seeing the vegetables lovingly tended by local community gardeners I marvelled and pondered the poignancy of the power of compost to turn death and destruction into life, even in small seemingly insignificant ways – enriching a beautiful and life-giving timeless garden.
Visiting BPCA was part of my research for a Churchill Fellowship exploring education methods and partnership models to support community composting. For more details visit my Churchill Fellows Portal where the full report can also be downloaded.