Village of Hastings-on-Hudson 2021 Organics Waste Management Plan

Wasted food and other organic waste is a major generator of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Diverting such wastes is a key strategy for mitigating climate change and has other important benefits. In response to community interest in waste, organics diversion, and climate change, the Village of Hastings-on-Hudson has developed this Organics Management Plan to provide strategies and recommendations. The goal of the Plan is to reduce the amount of organic waste destined for disposal by preventing its generation and increasing reuse, recycling, and composting. Such reduction is a significant component in the local, state, national, and international effort to avoid the most dangerous climate change scenarios, which requires that by the end of this decade GHG emissions be in sharp decline, and with policies in place to continue the decline to net zero by mid-century.

In recent years, the Village’s citizens and government have instituted a variety of programs for managing organic wastes. These include local and regional composting of wasted food scraps, composting of yard waste both through pickup and by encouraging in situ leaf mulching, and food pantries that direct surplus food to hungry families. Most of these programs are managed in partnership with other local government and private entities. The programs are supported by the Village government and staff and other regional governments. Vigorous efforts on public outreach with websites, flyers, events, and so forth have been underway for years.

With so much infrastructure already in place, many of this Plan’s proposed actions address expansion of the existing programs and improvements in their efficiency. The Plan proposes a number of additions, suggests types of data that should be gathered, and points to additional possibilities worth investigating. While adoption has been swift among certain segments of the population, the majority of residents and local businesses do not currently participate directly in all of the programs, so many of the proposed actions involve messaging strategies, public outreach, and education to increase participation. Many of the recommendations are consistent with recommendations made in the Village’s Comprehensive Plan (2011) and Sustainability Plan (2010). The specific initiatives are enumerated in a table, see Section 5 below.