The Materials and Waste Topic Area covers sustainable consumption, sustainable building materials, waste diversion, organics collection and composting, and construction and demolition activities in Battery Park City. This provides direction on how BPC can drive sustainable behavioral change; reduce the volume of waste sent to landfill from building materials, organics, and consumer products; and ultimately promote more reuse/circular economies.
Highlights:
Zero Waste
On Earth Day 2019, BPCA launched its Zero Waste Initiative, a waste-reduction program that includes staff education, regular reporting and review of vendor practices, and pledges from more than 100 Authority staff members to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Focusing initially on BPCA’s 75 Battery Place location, the goal is to attain Gold TRUE certification (an assessor-based program that rates how well facilities minimize waste), decrease office waste going to landfill by 90% over the next 12 months, and learn from this experience to expand Zero Waste to other BPCA owned spaces – and eventually to the community.
The Zero Waste Advisory Committee, comprised of staff from the Authority’s Programming and Operations teams, conduct regular trainings and information sessions for BPCA staff on the transition to a zero waste facility. Landfill, recycling, and composting signage was redesigned to easily covey to building occupants which items go in which bin. The Zero Waste Committee audits the facility’s waste stream regularly to gather metrics and identify other possible waste streams to reuse or recycle.
Read more: BPCA’s TRUE Zero Waste Certification
Composting
BPCA has a longstanding and growing composting program, with vegetable and fruit waste is collected from local stores, staff and residents. More than 20,000 pounds of food and plant waste were composted in 2018. BPCA’s composting numbers in 2019 exceeded even that — with more than 35,000 pounds composted!
On Earth Day 2019 BPCA launched the neighborhood’s first building-specific composting program at Gateway Plaza, Battery Park City’s largest residential complex. The resulting compost is used to nourish and sustain soils across Battery Park City’s parks. It is also used to help create the compost tea — compost steeped in water — to inoculate soils with beneficial fungi and bacteria in the spring and fall.
Members of the public can participate in BPCA’s composting program by dropping off their food waste at two locations:
– BPCA Parks Operations – 75 Battery Place
– Lower Level of North Esplanade by Chambers Street and River Terrace
Dog Waste Composting
In continuing our commitment to sustainability, BPCA operates a Dog Waste Compost program at each of our three community dog runs. Our goal is to send less dog waste in its raw form to the landfill. By doing this, BPCA can prevent up to 13.5 tons of dog waste from entering the landfill and reduce methane gas released into the environment.
Compacting Program
BPCA’s community compacting program collects approximately hundreds of tons of residential waste from compactors each month. Instead of traditional garbage pickup, most of the buildings across the 92-acre site that comprise Battery Park City, have participated in a community compactor program, where garbage from 7,000 residential units from 27 different buildings is placed in wheeled carts and brought to one of the six compactors in the neighborhood.
Back to Blog Homepage
