Does my NYC business have to compost?
The 2026 answer, with the thresholds that decide it and the date that is about to move them.
Probably not yet, and quite possibly soon. The requirement in New York City reaches a specific list of businesses by type and size, and a bill passed in June 2026 gives the Sanitation Department the power to widen that list.
Who is covered today
- Restaurants, delis, coffee shops and cafeterias at 7,000 square feet or more.
- Chains with two or more city locations totaling 8,000 square feet.
- Food service in hotels with at least 100 guest rooms.
- Supermarkets and grocery chains above certain sizes.
- Catering establishments hosting events over 100 attendees.
- Temporary public events over 500 attendees.
- Arenas and stadiums seating 15,000 or more.
- Large food manufacturers and wholesalers.
New York State law separately requires large food scrap generators to donate edible food and recycle the rest where a processor is in range. The state threshold has been stepping down; the one-ton-per-week tier took effect in January 2026. More on the state law.
What changes on December 1, 2026
Int. 31, passed June 30, 2026, lets DSNY extend the requirement to a much broader set of food businesses, wholesalers and venues included. The extension turns on capacity: the city has to be able to process what it would be asking businesses to separate, and DSNY has a capacity determination due December 1, 2026.
So the practical question is not whether you are covered today but whether you are near a line. A 5,000 square foot restaurant is not covered now and is a plausible candidate later.
What if I am in a Commercial Waste Zone?
You can still use a micro-hauler. Waste collected by a micro-hauler is excluded from the Commercial Waste Zones program, so food scrap collection sits alongside your zone carter rather than competing with it. Your trash and recycling stay with the zone carter. What a micro-hauler is.
What to do if you are not covered
Plenty of businesses separate food scraps under every threshold, for reasons that have nothing to do with a rule: it is the heavy, wet part of the bag, the weights tell a chef something about their own kitchen, and the material comes back as soil rather than going into a truck. If the rule does arrive later, it arrives at a business that already has the habit and a year of weights to show for it.
This describes what the rules say, as best we understand them, and it is not legal advice. Enforcement is the city’s and the state’s, not ours, and nothing we produce certifies anyone’s compliance. Check with DSNY or DEC for anything that turns on a threshold.