DROP-OFF | BK ROT

We Want Your Food Scraps!

We accept food scraps at the following sites:

Good Life Garden (50 Goodwin Place)

Saturdays 11-1pm

Know Waste Lands (1309 Dekalb Avenue)

Sundays 12-3pm

Aberdeen Community Garden (98 Aberdeen Street)

Sundays 2-5pm [Apr-Nov]
Sundays 1-4pm [Dec-Mar]

Find answers to all your compost questions below:

WHAT ARE YOUR COVID SAFETY MEASURES?

1. Wear a mask

2. Stay 6' apart from others

3. Drop off your food scraps into the bin
4. Donate if you're able to <3

HOW DOES IT USUALLY WORK?

At the garden we offer residents the opportunity to process their own food scraps for free with the support of our staff or you can bring a small donation (couple bucks) and we will do it for you. Due to COVID-19, we are only offering contactless drop off. We encourage folks to find other ways to support. Food scraps accepted at Know Waste Lands on Sundays are picked up and composted by our friends at the Big Reuse.

WHAT CAN I COMPOST?

Compostable Items: fruit scraps (please freeze these for one day before drop off), vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, dry grains, nuts, corn cobs, egg shells (but NO eggs), green plants prunings, hedge trimmings, grass clippings, flower bouquets, dead plants, old potting soil (for quality control, we prefer organic mixes or those without added chemical fertilizers), small quantities of straw and hay (unless used for animal bedding), untreated wood chips and sawdust, food-soiled unbleached paper towels and napkins, shredded paper, newspaper.

NO MEAT, FISH, EGGS, CHEESE or DAIRY PRODUCTS
NO RUBBERBANDS, TWIST TIES, CORKS or STICKERS
NO PET WASTE or PET LITTER (even if labeled “compostable”)
NO “COMPOSTABLE” CUPS/DISHES/UTENSILS (even if labeled “compostable”)
NO BLEACHED PAPER TOWELS

If you have doubts about what to compost after reading the above, email us at info [at] bkrot [dot] org.

WHY THE DONATION?

BK ROT’s drop off site helps to facilitate convenient local composting while directly supporting local youth in valuable environmental work. In order to commit a youth to regular hours for servicing the drop off times we need to guarantee their hourly pay. Your donations help BK ROT cover their time and availability for this work.

WHAT’S THE WORK?

For a number of reasons, we weigh all the material, open each bag and go through the scraps to ensure only acceptable items are being processed. We then chop them down into smaller pieces and mix them with sawdust, woodchips or other carbon-rich material before putting it all in the active compost system. This process generally takes about 2-3 hours depending on the day. It is a physically demanding, messy, smelly job that takes time and knowledge of the composting process. The requested donations go directly to the youth, compensating them for their hard work, availability, commitment and time.

WHAT WOULD HELP?

We are trying to create more efficiency and consistency across the service so we can serve you better. We ask that you, our composting neighbors, participate with the following things in mind:

Please remove all rubber bands, twist ties and stickers before freezing fruits and vegetable scraps.
Please consolidate drop off into the least amount of bags possible- it saves you money and it saves us from being left with a lot of plastic to sort through and dispose of at our host community garden.
Please respect the drop off hours. Bags left outside the gate will not be composted.
Please don’t forget to donate, being able to compensate the youth for their work really matters and makes this all possible.
Please tell everyone about BK ROT and encourage others to participate! Our success is thanks to people like you, those excited to connect with both local composting and local community.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE COMPOST?

We will share it with the community supporting this work. We will use it as a resource to raise funds to sustain the project. We also share the finished compost with the partners we share land with and use it in community greening efforts. Learn more about finished compost here.