Food scrap curbside recycling may be coming back to Rye. In 2019, Rye launched a limited pilot curbside recycling program but the program was cancelled in March 2020 by a 4-3 vote in the Rye City Council. On Wednesday evening, March 25th, 2026, the Rye City Council asked City Manager Brian Shea to look at the feasibility and economics of bringing back the food scrap curbside recycling plan.
“The EPA estimates that food waste makes up approximately 22% of everything in our trash,” said Councilman James Ward, who advanced the idea during the “old business/new business” agenda at the end of the meeting. “Applied to Rye’s numbers that suggests that we are sending over 1,000 tons to the Peekskill incinerator every year.”
The city still maintains a food scrap drop off program, but the numbers have dropped from 67.6 tons in 2019 to as low as 36 tons in 2023 and 42.6 tons in 2025.
“Tonight, I’m asking the city manager to conduct a financial and operational feasibility study for a city wide, curbside food scrap pickup [program],” said Ward.
“I was here in March of 2020, when we abandoned the program, and I voted against abandoning the program because there was a lot of useful data and plans by the county that were not considered in that discussion,” said Rye Mayor Josh Nathan, who was a councilman at the time.
The council then all agreed City Manager Shea should undertake the feasibility study. The timing of a study and when the issue will return to the city council was not immediately clear.
Asking authentically: what is the value to Rye in a food scrap recycling program? Why would renewing this be a good thing for Rye City taxpayers?