York loves a narrative. “Sustainability.” “Impact.” “Circular economy.” Words polished enough to win grants, post on LinkedIn, and slap onto city slideshows in rooms where people who don’t cook, compost, or go hungry make decisions about food. The problem is the numbers tell a very different story.

New York City throws out an estimated 1.2 million tons of food every year. Not composted. Not donated. Thrown out. Perfectly edible food sits in black garbage bags next to apartment buildings where families are skipping meals. Meanwhile, more than 1.3 million New Yorkers struggle with food insecurity. Let that sit for a second. A city with Michelin-starred temples and $28 burritos can’t feed one in seven of its residents.

Before the excuses roll in, let’s be clear: this isn’t about capacity. New York has enough food to feed everyone. Its waste stream proves it. This is about logistics, bureaucracy, and priorities that keep resources locked away behind funding cycles, operational inefficiencies, and nonprofits clinging to their frameworks like franchises protecting IP.

For years the city has pumped millions into programs intended to reduce food waste and expand composting. DSNY’s composting program alone has burned through tens of millions in operating costs since its inception. Yet participation rates remain low, contamination rates high, and the actual outcome? A fraction of the potential impact. The city introduced mandatory curbside composting with the kind of optimism usually reserved for Times Square New Year’s Eve speeches. But bins sit unused. Bags go to landfill. And the system, as designed, assumes New Yorkers who barely separate recycling will suddenly become disciplined compost sorters.

Then there are the nonprofits. Some do real work. Some fight the good fight inside the chaos. But many have become fundraising machines inflated by “impact language” rather than measurable results. Over the last decade, food-related nonprofits in New York have absorbed more than $400 million in public and private funding meant to address hunger, waste, and food infrastructure. But walk through neighborhoods in the Bronx, East Harlem, Brownsville, or Corona and ask people if they feel the difference.

You already know the answer.

We’ve institutionalized inefficiency. Food pantries receiving truckloads of produce only to dump half because the distribution schedule doesn’t match community needs. Organizations spending more on salaries, consultants, and branding than on refrigeration, transportation, or logistics. Grants funding pilot programs that never scale. Reports that look good in PDF format but don’t change a damn thing in the real world.

Meanwhile, restaurants are forced to carry the guilt and the regulation burden. Donate too soon, the food is considered “unsafe.” Donate too late, liability risk. So much ends in the trash because the system makes it easier. Some hospitality operators build their own donation or composting workflows because relying on existing city systems is like standing at JFK baggage claim waiting for a suitcase that you know was left in Dallas.

Here’s the hypocrisy: the city keeps asking individuals to fix problems their policies and partners are failing to solve. Compost. Sort. Donate. Reduce. Reuse. And people should. Personal responsibility matters. But that alone won’t solve a system-level failure created by leadership that speaks innovation and delivers inertia.

There are solutions. Cities like Milan have built food waste logistics networks that rescue tens of thousands of meals per day. Seoul turned composting into an economic incentive system tied to technology, not hope. Copenhagen invested in cold-chain infrastructure before funding marketing campaigns. They made the systems work first.

New York? New York keeps funding messaging before mechanics.

The truth is this city has the talent, infrastructure, and resources to build the most effective food recovery and composting ecosystem in the country, maybe the world. Instead, we’re stuck with a model more concerned with optics than outcomes.

Imagine a network where surplus food from restaurants, events, wholesale markets, and grocery stores automatically routes into community fridges, shelters, and distribution hubs with real-time tracking. Where composting is handled curb-to-curb with the same consistency as trash pickup. Where nonprofits are measured by delivered meals and reduced waste rather than press releases and gala attendance. Where grants fund execution, not endless planning committees.

Not radical. Just functional.

New Yorkers are tired of being labeled the problem and handed the bill. We’re tired of watching tax dollars disappear into black holes labeled “initiative.” We’re tired of being told progress is happening when the evidence is sitting on sidewalks in leaking garbage bags.

Food should not be luxury for some and landfill for others. Composting shouldn’t be an optional civic scavenger hunt. Feeding people shouldn’t require heroic volunteerism when we have the supply, infrastructure, and money.

It should be basic. Automatic. Expected.

Until this city stops performing progress and starts building systems that work, food will continue rotting in the trash while New Yorkers go hungry. And the organizations tasked with solving the problem will keep collecting funding while shifting responsibility back onto the public.

New York loves calling itself the future.

Prove it.

By Marco Shalma