NYS Organics Council

Tour of OCRRA's compost facility in 2023

The NYS Organics Council is a group of more than 100 professionals and community leaders from across the state committed to advancing sustainable organics management through food loss reduction, food rescue, organics recycling (e.g., composting, anaerobic digestion), compost use, and more.

Chair: Jesse Kerns, Assistant Director for Sustainable Organics Management with Syracuse University's Center for Sustainable Community Solutions (CSCS)

Join the Organics Council

Are you a NY-based materials management professional or local community leader interested in developing local initiatives or programs to divert organics from the wastestream? If so, we encourage you to consider joining the NYS Organics Council. To learn more and to join, send an email with the subject line "NYS Organics Council" to chairperson Jesse Kerns at jekerns@syr.edu.

Monthly Meetings & Active Listserv

Organics Council members meet from 10-11 a.m. (ET) on the last Tuesday of each month via Zoom and regularly communicate through an active listserv. These virtual platforms are used to connect council members, communicate importan updates, discuss challenges, share tools and resources, and provide members with peer-to-peer support.

The Annual NYS Organics Summit

A planning committe comprised of active Organics Council members organizes the annual NYS Organics Summit, which occurs at the beginning of April each year in a rotating region of NY. The first NYS Organics Summit took place in Poughkeepsie, NY in 2015 and has grown consistently since. After ten years, this event has become an important annual opportunity to convene key stakeholders and support regional strategies for the advancement of sustainable organics management in NY. For more information about the next summit, visit: https://www.nysar3.org/page/nys-organics-summit-100.html

NYS Compost Awareness Week

Organizes educators, community leaders, and other partners across the State to develop materials, communications, and interactive events which promote composting to residents and other community stakeholders. These efforts are conducted in conjunction with the Compost Research and Education Foundation's International Compost Awareness Week.

Tools & Resources

Organics Council members collaborate to develop tools and resources such as the NYS Food Scraps Collection Map.