The bg视讯 Compost Program is typically focused on collecting your food scraps, but this spring, we’re also giving away free compost made from the food scraps we’ve collected in the last year! This is our annual act of reciprocity: we're closing the loop and giving thanks to the thousands of New Yorkers who have saved their food scraps from landfills by bringing them to our Food Scrap Drop-off sites. Small, 2-pound bags of ready-to-use compost will be available on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last, as outlined below.

Compost Made in NYC

The compost for this Giveback is provided by two New York City Compost Project host sites: Earth Matter NY and Queens Botanical Garden. If you’ve dropped off food scraps with bg视讯, then the bag of compost you’ll receive may contain nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium from your very own peels and pits. That’s what we mean when we say “closed loop.”

Compost Giveback Schedule

Quantities are limited and based on average weekly participation at each drop-off site, so consider coming early to make sure you get a bag.

2022 COMPOST GIVEBACK DATE	BOROUGH	LOCATION	TIME	COMPOST MADE BY
Friday, April 1	Queens	Corona Food Scrap Drop-off Roosevelt Ave & 103 St	8am-1pm	Queens Botanical Garden
Sunday, April 3	Queens	Jackson Heights Greenmarket 79th St and Northern Blvd	8:30am-2pm	Queens Botanical Garden
Sunday, April 3	Queens	Forest Hills Greenmarket 70th Ave & Austin St	9am-1pm	Queens Botanical Garden
Thursday, April 7	Queens	Kew Gardens Food Scrap Drop-off Metropolitan Ave & Audley St	9:30am-12:30pm	Queens Botanical Garden
Saturday, April 9	Queens	Sunnyside Greenmarket Skillman Ave & 42nd St	9am-1pm	Queens Botanical Garden
Saturday, April 9	Queens	Ridgewood Food Scrap Drop-off Myrtle Ave & Cypress Ave	9:30am-1:30pm	Queens Botanical Garden
Wednesday, April 27	Manhattan	Madison Sq. Park Food Scrap Drop-off 23rd St & Broadway	8am-1pm	Earth Matter
Wednesday, April 27	Manhattan	Dag Hammarskjold Plaza Greenmarket E. 47th St and 2nd Ave	8am-12:30pm	Earth Matter
Thursday, April 28	Manhattan	181st St Food Scrap Drop-off 181st St & Fort Washington Ave	7am-12:30pm	Earth Matter
Thursday, April 28	Manhattan	145th St Food Scrap Drop-off 145th St & Edgecombe Ave	7:30am-12pm	Earth Matter
Thursday, April 28	Manhattan	Tucker Sq. Greenmarket 66th St & Columbus Ave	8am-11am	Earth Matter
Thursday, April 28	Brooklyn	Wilson Ave Food Scrap Drop-off Wilson Ave & Moffat St	9am-1pm	Earth Matter
Friday, April 29	Manhattan	97th St Greenmarket W 97th & Amsterdam	8am-12:30pm	Earth Matter
Friday, April 29	Manhattan	E 96th St East 96th St & Lexington Ave	7:30am-11:30am	Earth Matter
Saturday, April 30	Brooklyn	Brooklyn Borough Hall Greenmarket Court St & Montague St	8am-12pm	Earth Matter
Saturday, April 30	Brooklyn	Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket Flatbush Ave & Eastern Pkwy (north of the arch)	8am-2pm	Earth Matter
Saturday, April 30	Brooklyn	McCarren Park Greenmarket N 12th St and Driggs Ave	8am-12pm	Earth Matter
Wednesday, May 5	Bronx	Mott Haven Food Scrap Drop-off 545 East 142nd Street	9am-12pm	Earth Matter
Wednesday, May 5	Bronx	Morrisania Food Scrap Drop-off McKinley Square at 169th St & Boston Rd	10am-1pm	Earth Matter
Thursday, May 5	Brooklyn	Franklin Ave Food Scrap Drop-off Eastern Parkway & Franklin Ave	8:30am-11:30am	Earth Matter
Thursday, May 5	Brooklyn	Prospect Heights Food Scrap Drop-off Park Place & Carlton Ave	8am-11am	Earth Matter
Thursday, May 5	Bronx	Norwood Farmstand E Gun Hill Rd & Dekalb Ave	9am-2pm	Earth Matter
Thursday, May 5	Bronx	BronxWorks Food Scrap Drop-off 1130 Grand Concourse	10am-1pm	Earth Matter
Friday, May 6	Bronx	New Roots Community Farm Food Scrap Drop-off 670 Grand Concourse	8am-12pm	Earth Matter
Friday, May 6	Bronx	Fordham Plaza Food Scrap Drop-off E Fordham Rd & 3rd Ave	8am-11:30am	Earth Matter
Friday, May 6	Bronx	Montefiore Fresh Food Box 871 Prospect Ave	11am-2pm	Earth Matter
Friday, May 6	Bronx	Parkchester Food Scrap Drop-off Westchester Ave & White Plains Rd	8am-12pm	Earth Matter
Friday, May 6	Brooklyn	Cypress Hills Food Scrap Drop-off Fulton St & Richmond St	10am-1pm	Earth Matter
Friday, May 6	Brooklyn	Crown Heights Farmstand Eastern Parkway & Franklin Ave	8:30am-11:30am	Earth Matter
Saturday, May 7	Brooklyn	Kensington Food Scrap Drop-off McDonald Ave & Albemarle Rd	8:30am-11:30am	Earth Matter
Saturday, May 7	Brooklyn	7th Ave Sunset Park Greenmarket 7th Ave & 44th St	8am-12pm	Earth Matter
Saturday, May 7	Brooklyn	Bay Ridge Greenmarket 3rd Ave & 95th Street	8am-12:30pm	Earth Matter
Sunday, May 8	Brooklyn	Bensonhurst Food Scrap Drop-off 18th Ave & 81st St	9am-1pm	Earth Matter
Sunday, May 8	Brooklyn	Carroll Gardens Greenmarket Smith St and 1st Pl	8am-12pm	Earth Matter
Sunday, May 8	Manhattan	77th/79th Sts Greenmarket 77th St between Columbus Ave & Central Park West	9am-3pm	Earth Matter
Saturday, May 14	Brooklyn	Fort Greene Greenmarket Washington Park & Myrtle Ave	9am-2pm	Earth Matter
Saturday, May 14	Brooklyn	Bed-Stuy Fresh Food Box Decatur St and Lewis Ave	11am-3pm	Earth Matter
Saturday, May 14	Manhattan	Abingdon Sq. Greenmarket W12th St & 8th Ave	8am-2pm	Earth Matter
Saturday, May 14	Manhattan	Tribeca Greenmarket Greenwich St & Duane St	8am-1pm	Earth Matter
Saturday, May 14	Manhattan	Inwood Greenmarket Seaman Ave & Isham St (N corner)	8am-12pm	Earth Matter
Sunday, May 15	Brooklyn	Cortelyou Greenmarket Argyle Rd and Cortelyou Rd	9am-1pm	Earth Matter
Sunday, May 15	Manhattan	Columbia Greenmarket 116th St & Broadway	8am-12pm	Earth Matter
Sunday, May 15	Manhattan	Asphalt Green Food Scrap Drop-off East 91st St & York Ave	7:30am-12:30pm	Earth Matter
Friday, June 24	Bronx	Lincoln Hospital Greenmarket 149th St b/t Park and Morris Aves	8am-12pm	Earth Matter

How to Use Compost

You don’t need to have a backyard or garden to have a use for compost. Indoor plants benefit from an annual application of compost, and we all have access to street trees that can use some love. We recommend mixing your compost into soil at a ratio of at least 3 parts soil to 1 part compost for best results.

• For outdoor plants: Rake, sprinkle, or mix the compost into the soil of garden or tree beds.
• For indoor plants: Gently mix an inch of compost into the top layer of potting soil, or blend with potting soil when repotting.

Compost is not shelf-stable, and will not store well. Please use your compost within a week or two of receiving it.

Our small Compost Giveback bags are also compostable. Please remove the tin tie and sticker before bringing the empty bag back to a bg视讯 Food Scrap Drop-off site for composting.

Looking for a larger quantity of compost?

The bg视讯 Compost Program has the opportunity to give out finished compost bags made at the Staten Island Compost Site by the Department of Sanitation. We have 150 bags of approximately 30 lbs. each that we can deliver to interested participants at our designated food scrap drop-off sites for pick-up. Please fill out our form to request finished compost and we'll get in touch with you. Note that due to limited supplies, we cannot guarantee that you will be able to receive finished compost. The Department of Sanitation is also listing options for receiving or picking up larger quantities of finished compost on their website here. 

What is compost, anyway?

During Compost Giveback events, there’s often some confusion about what we’re giving away and why. Here are a few definitions to know:

• Food Scraps (noun) – the uneaten foods or parts of food. Calling these items scraps, rather than waste, highlights their value and potential for beneficial use, including human and animal consumption of rescued edible foods, composting, and anaerobic digestion.

• Composting (verb) - the process of aerobic, biological decomposition that transforms organic materials like food scraps and fallen leaves into compost.

• Compost (noun) – a soil amendment that resembles dark, crumbly topsoil, has a pleasant earthy smell, and has no resemblance to the original organic materials from which it is made. Compost refers to the finished product of the composting process, and is not to be confused with food scraps, which are just one ingredient in the composting process.

• Soil (noun) – the upper layer of earth in which plants grow. Healthy soil consists of 45% minerals, 25% water, 25% air, and 5% organic matter. Soil is not to be confused with compost, which is a soil amendment that adds organic matter and beneficial microbes to soil.

When you drop off your food scraps with bg视讯, we bring them to composting facilities, where they’re mixed with carbon-rich materials like leaves and wood chips, and transformed into compost. The finished compost can be used to improve soil quality for houseplants, gardens, and street trees alike.

Additional Resources

• How to Use Compost Tip Sheet from NYC Compost Project
• See the New York City Street Tree Map for tips on how to care for urban trees.
• For information about getting compost in larger quantities, visit nyc.gov/getcompost. 

The compost giveback is made possible by funding from the NYC Department of Sanitation.