Local Organics Loop
2022-2023
Urban Design Forum
Forefront Fellowship
with Rafael Berges, Alexandra Burkhardt, Fernando Canteli de Castro, Graci Mills & Miryam Shemwell
Every day, New Yorkers toss black bags into tall piles at the curb. Building supers break down cardboard boxes for recycling. Sanitation crews empty sidewalk waste baskets. Community gardeners collect food scraps from neighbors for composting. Waste management is a fundamental challenge of daily city life.
Caring for our public spaces supports community connection and wellbeing. Microhauling and composting businesses can create local jobs. Building design choices can support diversion from the landfill. Collective action and creative strategies can propel New York City towards a circular system.
Culminating a year of immersive research in partnership with DSNY, Forefront Fellows developed a report and created original projects on increasing waste diversion at restaurants; fostering pathways to local circular jobs; investing in decentralized waste infrastructure; and reclaiming underutilized spaces for local community exchanges.
New Loops re-envisioned how we keep our city clean, offering new approaches to waste that support our health, climate and society.
Local Organics Loop is a proposal for the establishment of neighborhood street-level hubs connected to existing networks of organics producers, collectors, haulers, and processors. This public realm infrastructure proposes support and integration for the City’s curbside organics service and zero waste goals. Historically, organics collections and processing in New York City has been a community affair, powered by community farms, community compost sites, and community gardens. As New York City prepares for mandated residential organics separation by 2024, this proposal uplifts existing local networks and folds them into the infrastructure of citywide organics recycling.
Links & Press