Budget permitting, Sanitation collects about 15,000 tons of fall leaves for composting and brings them to Sanitation composting sites run under private contract with WeCare Organics, LLC.  

WeCare uses different kinds of equipment to form the leaves into outdoor windrows, which are turned regularly to promote decomposition.

It takes approximately nine months to produce finished, high-quality compost from the collected leaves. When the fall leaf collection program is operational, finished compost is returned to NYC residents through compost givebacks.   

Currently operating DSNY composting sites include:

• Fresh Kills, a 24-acre site constructed in 1998 at the entrance to the former landfill in Staten Island.
  
• Soundview, a 7-acre site constructed in 1999 on an inactive and undeveloped section of Soundview Park in the Bronx with damaged soil.

A third DSNY compost site, Spring Creek (on the Brooklyn-Queens border), was constructed by DSNY at Spring Creek Park in an area adjacent to the water treatment facility run by the NYC Department of Environmental Protection. This 20-acre facility has not yet received an operating permit from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and cannot be used for composting at this time.

To locate additional composting sites, NYC’s Solid Waste Management Plan created the Compost Siting Task Force comprised of representatives appointed by the Mayor, the five Borough Presidents, and City Council.

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