Shore Road Community Compost Collection Site

This project is a partnership between the Yellow Hook CSA and the Narrows Botanical Gardens (NBG) in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. We seek to build a three-bin compost system to turn household food waste from Bay Ridge residents and organic wastes (chicken bedding, leaves, plant debris) from the NBG into a high quality soil amendment to be used at NBG and to add nutrients to soil around street trees along Shore Road. In addition the site will be used to promote backyard composting in the community.

Once built, the community compost collection site will be open to the public to drop of kitchen vegetable scraps during scheduled collection times. Initially, the site will be open at least once a week alternating between a weekend and a weekday drop off time. As the trained volunteer base grows, additional hours of collection can be held.

Members of the Yellow Hook CSA and greater Bay Ridge community are aware that their food scraps could be put to better use than being thrown in the garbage. CSA members, many of whom live in apartment units, do not  necessarily have the time or space to compost on their own. Meanwhile, close by, the Narrows Botanical Gardens produces a lot of "brown" organic matter that is left to slowly break down. A managed compost site, mixing the food scraps from residents with the materials from the NBG will result in waste diverted from landfills and produce a high quality soil ammendment for use at the Narrows Botanical Gardens, possilby reducing their annual expenses.