Composting For All In Windsor Terrace - Kensington

Everyone should be able to compost their household food scraps.  But with the end of NYC Sanitation's compost pick-up, where can people turn? The East 4th Street community garden has been an oasis in a composting desert.  To respond to the community's composting needs, we plan to rebuild and expand our composting area by creating attractive, durable bins to replace our aging, overloaded system. Now, with your help meeting this dollar for dollar match will allow us to serve the community's composting needs.

As a compost drop-off site listed by NYC Sanitation, 100s of "depositors" already come from far and wide to drop off to us. We estimate that we have at least 150 composters dropping by on at least a biweekly basis and interest grows by the month. Despite limited hours due to COVID-19, enthusiasm remains high: at current rates we estimate we will compost over 3 tons of material annually.  Depositors who are first timers not only recycle their organic waste, but some return to the garden as guests to enjoy the beauty and solace, some join as members and others attend our public events. Everyone is welcome to take finished compost for their own greening projects. We offer composting to residents from all over Brooklyn, particularly those who can walk or bike to us from among the most diverse census tracts in the nation.  We will use our existing outreach channels, conducted in languages including Spanish, Bengali and Urdu, to attract new composters.  We also plan to have educational material on site appropriate to educating children about composting. 

We are already in discussion with several experienced compost bin builders from whom we will seek bids.  We are targeting the month of November to finalize our design and select a contractor.  In early December, garden volunteers will demolish the old bins. This will leave time over the winter for the contractor, over just several days, build out the new bin system.  By the time of the spring re-opening of the garden to the public, all will be ready to welcome old friends and a new wave of compost depositors.

Everyone one who wishes to compost their household food scraps should be able to find a convenient location to do so, in addition to returning to the earth their organic waste.  We want all to help beatify the community and nurture the garden.  We can't count on city government to meet our composting needs in an era of budget cutting.  Let's build local self-sufficiency!