CHELSEA, Manhattan (WABC) — There are some growing pains nearly one year since the start of New York City’s new composting program.<\/p>\n
Some residents say weekly pickups aren’t enough in the summer months, and they say compost left outside bakes in the heat and attracts mice, maggots and creates a disgusting smell.<\/p>\n
“The rats love the smell,” said Barbara Rosenfield, a tenant who lives in Chelsea.<\/p>\n
“The composting smell is awful. You got goop and the maggots and you’re just attracting more rats,” said Dominick Romeo, a building superintendent in Chelsea.<\/p>\n
The composting law started in April to pick up food scraps and yard waste which would then be used as natural fertilizer, but now it’s piling up in the heat, and is only picked up once per week.<\/p>\n
Romeo says he’s trying his best.<\/p>\n
“This week it was so bad. I had to throw it in the regular trash. It’s a biohazard,” he said.<\/p>\n
Chris Athineos is a building superintendent in Bay Ridge.<\/p>\n
“Everyone is complaining about it… supers and then tenants open the bin and it’s all flies,” Athineos said. “They don’t want to do it anymore.”<\/p>\n
People seem to like composting. They just think it needs to happen more often.<\/p>\n
The Sanitation Department was receptive when Eyewitness News reached out, saying “we are certainly interested in studying when a second weekly composting collection might be feasible, efficient, and effective.”<\/p>\n
Sanitation added that they have been collecting five million pounds of compost per week, which is a record.<\/p>\n
“They should pick it up more often,” Rosenfield said.<\/p>\n
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