Christine Datz-Romero, Our Lady of Compost

Christine Datz-Romero, from the Lower East Side Ecology Center, collects food scraps at the Union Square Farmers Market and turns it into compost. Photo: ©2010 IsaacHernandez.com

Christine, originally from Frankfurt, Germany, has been collecting food scraps from New Yorkers for 20+ years, turning them into sweet compost. She’s a very sweet and “down-to-earth” woman, excuse the pun. I like to call her, “Our Lady of Compost,” as she has a certain glow. She’s the co-founder and executive director of the Lower East Side Ecology Center (LESEC).

Four times a week the van from LESEC visits the Union Square Farmers Market with empty trash cans that the neighbors fill up slowly with scraps they have been saving in their apartments: vegetables, rice, bread, coffee…

“If a truck took all of these out of the city, it would be taking away water and nutrients for the earth,” says Christine. “How absurd, to burn gasoline traveling hundreds of miles to take heavy water outside of the city. This is why is important to find a local solution to waste.

The LESEC collects and processes 200 tons of organic waste per year, both at the Farmers Market and at their collection center on Seventh Street. They don’t get any support from City Hall, even though 25% of New Yorkers’ waste is compostable.

“In New York, because of the high density and the people living in small apartments is difficult to compost at home,” explains Datz-Romero. “The solution should be found in each neighborhood. But we need a larger effort. We reach, at the time, 1500 families. We’re financed by donations and the money we receive from selling the bags of compost.” Every Saturday, more than 500 people do a pilgrimage to Union Square to bring their organic waste to Christine, to “feed the worms.”

“Nothing represents best the cycle of life than earth. The leaves fall, they compost the earth and feed it for the Spring. With our food is the same thing: if we know to put it back on the earth, it will guarantee the growth for next harvest. We’re using resources and putting them where they belong so that the cycle continues. In nature there’s no such thing as waste.”