NYSAR3 Organics Council

Tour of OCRRA's compost facility in 2023

NYSAR3's Organics Council is a group of more than 140 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), beneficial end use, and more.

Chair: Jesse Kerns, Extension Associate with the New York Center for Organics Recycling and Education (NYCORE) at Cornell University

Join the Organics Council

Are you a NY-based materials management professional or local community leader interested in developing initiatives to divert organic materials (e.g., food scraps) from the waste stream? If so, we invite you to join NYSAR3's Organics Council. To learn more and to join, send an email with the subject line "NYSAR3 Organics Council Membership" to Chair, Jesse Kerns, at jek362@cornell.edu.

Monthly Meetings & Active Listserv

Organics Council members meet from 10:00-11:00 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 important updates, discuss challenges, share tools and resources, and provide each other 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 the state. The first NYS Organics Summit took place in Poughkeepsie, NY in 2015 and has since grown to become an important annual opportunity to convene key stakeholders and support regional strategies for the advancement of sustainable organics management in NY.S For more information about the next summit, visit: https://www.nysar3.org/page/nys-organics-summit-100.html

NYS Compost Awareness Week

NYS Compost Awaresness Week takes place the first full week of May each year in conjuction with the Compost Research and Education Foundation's International Compost Awareness Week. Organics Council members work to develop resources, conduct outreach, and coordinate interactive local events with the goal of raising awareness about the need for and importance of composting with residents and other community stakeholders. 

Tools & Resources

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