New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed a new plan that would require New Yorkers to separate their food from their trash so that it can be composted.
The New York Times reports that Bloomberg's administration is planning to announce that they are hiring a composting plant to handle 100,000 tons of food scraps a year, which is approximately 10 percent of the city's residential food waste.
Participating in the program will initially be voluntary, however, officials think that it will later become mandatory. Those who do not separate their food scraps could later be subjected to fines similar to those if they choose not to recycle.
"It's revolutionary for New York," said Eric A. Goldstein, a senior lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "If successful, pretty soon there'll be very little trash left for homeowners to put in their old garbage cans."
Mandatory composting programs are already in place in Seattle and San Francisco.
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