As an explanation for those who aren’t in NYC, the Sanitation Department is rolling out curbside collection of compostable materials, i.e. yard waste and food scraps. Presumably the point is reduce the amount of garbage going into landfills, as well as to provide compost to the Parks Department.
When NYC started curbside recycling, they did it on the cheap. Most communities provided bins, but NYC just handed out stickers that homeowners were instructed to put on garbage cans that they would need to pay for themselves. I suspect that they decided to provide the brown bins because regular garbage cans containing food waste would attract various creatures. They haven’t rolled out the program in my neighborhood yet, but I’ve seen the bins in my travels for several months. They always seem to be tightly sealed, and I never see flies around them. My only concern is that they’re too small for yard waste in neighborhoods where people actually have yards. I also wonder about including bones and the like, which are usually not composted.