Organic Waste
Organic waste includes everything that can breakdown back into soil through decomposition. All biological matter is organic matter: tree debris (leaves, branches), grass clippings, and food waste.
According to a residential waste composition study conducted in 2023, organic waste makes up roughly 46% of what households in New Orleans send to the landfill by weight. 
Read Study Here
The Problem: Organic Waste in our Catch Basins
Between 2020 and 2025, the City of New Orleans sent about 180,000 tons of residential municipal solid waste each year to the River Birch Landfill. The ongoing contract between the City of New Orleans and River Birch LLC ensures the city is charged $35/ton of material disposed of at the River Birch landfill. Knowing these tipping fees, the volume of waste we throw away, and the organic proportion of trash by weight, we calculate the municipal costs of the organics we send to River Birch landfill to be approximately $3 million/year.
New Orleans' year-round growing season also leads to high volumes of grass and yard waste for residents. Residents are instructed to bag their yard waste and leave it curbside on their designated trash collection days. These bags are then placed in trash trucks and hauled to the landfill. By performing this behavior, residents incur the weekly cost of plastic bag purchases and contribute to unnecessary single-use plastic consumption.
The current method of placing organic waste (leaves, yard waste) inside inorganic plastic bags reflects poor waste management practice, as the two materials are fundamentally dissimilar, and plastic, an inorganic compound, does not decompose. Oftentimes, these bags of yard waste are popped or ripped open prior to trash pickup, spilling foliage and other organic contents into the street and our at-risk drainage system. Still yet, many residents do not bag their yard waste. Instead, they may leaf blow organic debris out of their yard and into the street. Tree debris often combines with residential and commercial yard waste, such as grass clippings, in the streets, exacerbating the problem. Organic waste also makes up the majority of what gets clogged in our storm drains.
The Solution: Towards a 3-Bin System
Trees are great; their leaves in our drainage, not so much. The tension between the pros and cons of trees / vegetation can be alleviated with proactive organics waste management. Many municipalities that do not have the vulnerable drainage system that we have in New Orleans collect residential organic waste; yet our city, which continually suffers from flooding caused by obstructed drainage, does not. The existence of an industrial organics processing (composting) facility and organics collections can turn our city’s organic waste, which is currently a cost, into a regenerative resource for future urban agriculture efforts, stormwater management projects, residential yard beautification, and park in-filling in areas that have experienced subsidence over time.
For residents, modernizing from an antiquated and wasteful 1 or 2-colored residential waste management system (black trash cart or black trash cart and blue recycling cart) to a 3-colored residential waste diversion system (black trash cart, blue recycling cart, and green organics cart) can save residents money while keeping neighborhoods beautiful and upkept. Unlike single-use plastic bags, which are currently used once to contain organic waste before they are disposed of in the landfill, green organic waste carts can be refilled and reused over and over again until they break and are repaired or recycled. Because a cart exists to store organic waste, residents will take more initiative to collect leaf debris and other organic debris that collects in front of their catch basins. The distribution of municipal organics waste carts will have numerous co-benefits, namely the activation of residents proactively cleaning and stewarding their yards, streets, and drainage system alike.
