One of the existing solutions to reducing food waste is composting.  What is composting? Composting is a mix of organic and decayed substances, such as food scraps or dead leaves. Composting has three main ingredients, carbon (browns), nitrogen (greens), and water.  Brown materials consist of branches, straw, paper, and wood chips.  The greens come from food scraps like vegetable peels, fruit and coffee grounds.  Water is added to create a proper amount of moisture needed to make the compost productive (EPA, para 2).

Below are two links that have more information about composting.  The second link specifically relates to the NYC aread.

http://eartheasy.com/grow_compost.html

http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8799.html