Did you know that the average New Yorker throws out nearly 15 pounds of waste at home and another 9 pounds of waste at work every week? That means every year the Big Apple generates over 6 million tons of waste, and 85% of it ends up in landfills, while a large portion could be recycled, composted or converted to energy.

Mayor Bill de Blasio saw the need for a solution to our waste problem, and outlined a vision within #OneNYC, a plan aimed at improving the growth, equity, sustainability and resiliency of New York City. His vision entails a goal of reducing the city’s waste to zero by the year 2030.

Mayor de Blasio has several tricks up his sleeve, but one specific initiative is improving existing composting resources by expanding the New York City Organics program to reach all New Yorkers by the end of 2018.

This initiative will include:

• Increasing curbside organics collection and convenient local drop off sites
• Developing additional organics sorting and processing capacity in New York City
• Processing 250 tons of food waste per day and assessing long-term feasibility of scaling up processing of organic food waste
• Expanding community composting opportunities in all five boroughs

Right now the initiative is still in its pilot stage, but there are plenty of ways you can compost in the meantime. You can compost at home, purchase a compost-specific waste bin or bring your organic waste to one of the many food scrap locations near you.

Here’s a map for you to find a place to compost those apple cores and egg shells, and help New York City inch closer and closer to being waste free by 2030.

Want to learn more about composting? The Department of Sanitation has several resources for you: http://www1.nyc.gov/site/dsny/resources/education/compost-project-materials.page