A number of other cities around the country already require food scrap recycling, including San Francisco and Seattle, but the idea has been slower to catch on in New York, where critics worried that the urban density may make it more difficult—and possibly smellier.

But city officials told reporters that a composting pilot program fared better than expected. (The city has yet to respond to a request for comment from National Geographic.)

The administration says it will soon be looking to pay a local composting plant to process 100,000 tons of food scraps a year, or about 10 percent of the city's residential food waste. In the Big Apple, only residential refuse is handled directly by the city, since businesses must hire