Restored funding not enough to save community composting jobs

A last-minute infusion of $6.245 million into the city’s budget for community composting programs has not been enough to save programs run by several of the nonprofits providing the service and which were largely dependent on city subsidies for their continued operation.

GrowNYC was forced to lay off more than 90 unionized workers, liquidating all three of its zero-waste programs: community composting, compost education in schools and its “Stop N Swap” program during two rounds of layoffs in May and June. 

Workers at the environmental nonprofit, who are represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, have been sounding the alarm about impending layoffs since late last year when cuts to community composting were first announced. It seemed at the time that workers would be laid off immediately. Gifts from two private donors delayed those layoffs but, with funding not fully restored, GrowNYC terminated a large group of workers before the final budget for fiscal year 2025 was finalized. 

“It was very demoralizing,” Phyllis Yip, a former event assistant with the Stop N Swap program said about the layoffs. "We were still hoping for some kind of miracle to happen."  

Some terminated workers were able to find other positions at GrowNYC, Yip said, but most had to find jobs elsewhere. 

When the budget was finalized at the end of June, GrowNYC received $500,000, or 10 percent of its usual allocation and not enough, the organization representatives said, to restart its zero-waste programs.

The decrease in funds from the previous fiscal year meant it was “not feasible to recreate the programs as they were,” a spokesperson for GrowNYC said in an email. 

“We are saddened that our past programming under the city will not continue, however the Council's funding will allow GrowNYC to re-envision our waste reduction programming and develop new ways to reduce the environmental impacts of the millions of pounds of waste New Yorkers produce each year,” the spokesperson continued. “We are starting a planning process and will be working with the City Council to determine how best to utilize new funding."

In an email sent to workers after the budget was finalized, GrowNYC’s CEO, Marcel J. Van Ooyen, announced that — in addition to the $500,000 from the city — an anonymous donor had made a donation that would enable the nonprofit to hire a consultant to help develop “Zero Waste 2.0,” the organization’s plan for future waste reduction activities. 

One laid-off worker criticized GrowNYC for choosing to hire a consultant instead of relying on internal managers and workers to reimagine composting programs. "Workers are interested in being part of those discussions with [GrowNYC] about what the program might look like because we know the needs of the community better than a consultant that isn't familiar with the work we used to do,” the former compost worker said.  

Future uncertain

The RWDSU agreed with GrowNYC’s view that the money received would not be enough to restart the composting programs but insisted the workers and union should have input on what the funds are used for. 

“While the Union welcomes the newly allocated $500,000 in discretionary funding, it is far from enough to meet the composting and waste reduction needs of the more than 8 million residents of New York City, which we believe will be clearly borne out over the coming year,” Peter Montalbano, RWDSU’s lead negotiator for the GrowNYC workers, said in a statement. “Additionally, the Union also calls on GrowNYC’s management to bargain over the impact of this new funding stream and we encourage them to utilize this money for the purpose of rehiring as many of the more than 90 recently laid-off Zero Waste Program employees as possible.”

Other community composting nonprofits are also struggling.  

Since last fall, Big Reuse, which used to process compost brought to it by GrowNYC employees and other composting workers, has closed all three of its composting sites and laid off many of its workers. The organization will receive $1.4 million of the $6.245 million earmarked for community composting programs.  

"At the moment, we don't know specifically what we'll designate funds for, and we don't currently have composting sites,” Sarah Woodruff, a project manager at Big Reuse, wrote in an email. “We would love to bring back some staff as possible.” 

Without GrowNYC’s programs, the communities that would form at GrowNYC’s collection and Stop N Swap sites will no longer exist, said Yip, the former event assistant.

The organization’s other laid-off worker said that they and their former colleagues are still committed to composting and advancing sustainable practices, even if it's not at GrowNYC. 

“It really is a detriment to community compost when you don’t have a worker at a food scrap drop-off to do outreach and explain to people what it is and why it's important,” the laid-off worker said. "You can't just put out a bin and expect people who have limited time and resources to know the process.” 

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