Top: City of Kingston. Photo Credit: Adobe Express
The City of Kingston, New York, is expanding its municipal food scrap diversion efforts with the rollout of curbside collection through the Kingston Organics program. The new service builds on a drop-off network and reflects the city’s effort to gradually scale organics diversion while managing operational and budget considerations.
Kingston first introduced the Kingston Organics program in July 2023 with Phase 1, a voluntary food scrap drop-off system. Eleven collection sites were installed throughout the city in easily accessible locations to allow residents to bring food scraps (food scraps only are accepted) for composting. The program provided an early opportunity for city staff to gauge resident interest, evaluate contamination risks, and understand collection volumes before committing to a more complex curbside system.
With strong participation in the drop-off program, the city is now launching Phase 2A of the initiative. Residents who currently receive municipal trash service from the Kingston Department of Public Works can sign up for weekly curbside food scrap collection. This group represents the easiest population to integrate into the new service because collection routes and billing structures already exist. Participants receive a free 5-gallon kitchen container designed specifically for storing food scraps before they are placed out for pickup. The City of Kingston received grant funding to purchase two all-electric garbage trucks, which will be used to collect the food scraps, further minimizing the carbon footprint. Collected food scraps are taken to the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency’s industrial composting facility in Kingston.
Future phases will expand the program to commercial customers who currently receive municipal trash service. After that, the city plans to evaluate expansion to residents and businesses that do not currently receive municipal trash collection. Those phases may involve a fee-based structure depending on participation levels and operational costs.
City leaders say the sequencing is intentional. By expanding in stages, Kingston can monitor contamination levels, track participation rates, and evaluate hauling logistics before committing to full-scale service. The approach also allows the city to adjust program design as needed based on real world data.
Kingston’s approach illustrates a practical pathway we see in so many smaller cities with under 25,000 residents. Starting with voluntary drop-off infrastructure provides a low-risk way to build public awareness and test demand. Gradually expanding into curbside service can then follow once participation and operational lessons are better understood.
