Composting

Prospect Heights Community Farm is proud to offer organics recycling and composting to its neighbors. Our composting site is managed by a dedicated team of volunteers who work each week to weigh incoming organics, turn the compost piles, and sift finished compost. If you’re interested in joining the garden and volunteering for the compost team, please email compost@phcfarm.com.

Anyone is welcome to drop off food scraps on the following days and times:

Warm season (April 1 to October 31): Sundays, 10 am – 12 pm and during posted Open Hours

Cold season (November 1 to March 31): Sundays, 12 pm – 2pm

Please carefully read and follow the rules below before dropping off your food scraps.

PHCF Food Scrap Drop-off Rules

Our rules are slightly different from other drop-off sites because of our size and resources. By following these rules, you can help our volunteers handle the weekly volume of incoming food scraps, speed up the decomposition process, reduce odors to keep the neighbors happy, and keep rodents away.

  • Only drop off food scraps in the metal cans. (see image below) Do not add food scraps to the wooden bins.

  • Chop your food scraps into 2-3 inch pieces. It’s usually easier to do this at home, but if you forget, we have a chopper in the compost area you can use.
  • Remove stickers, rubber bands, and twist ties.
  • Completely cover your food scraps with “browns.” You can find browns (usually leaves and wood shavings) in the two plastic bins on either side of the metal drop-off cans. (see image below) Add just as much browns as there are food scraps.

  • Do not leave food scraps at the gate, on the sidewalk, or anywhere other than inside the drop-off cans. Food scraps on the ground — even in a bag — will attract RATS! If the garden is closed or if the cans are full, please bring your food scraps to one of the other drop-off sites in the neighborhood.

We accept:

  • Fruit and vegetable scraps (chopped into 2-3 inch pieces)
  • Egg shells
  • Coffee grounds, paper filters, and paper tea bags
  • Houseplants (not diseased or gone to seed)

We do not accept*:

  • Meat and fish
  • Bread
  • Cheese or dairy products
  • Food cooked in oil
  • Diseased plants
  • Weeds gone to seed
  • Paper bags (please recycle these at home)
  • Compostable bags, cups, plates and utensils
  • Latex
  • Plants that will propagate by root

If you’re not sure if it’s OK, please do not add it.

Please note that if our drop-off cans are full, we cannot accept any more food scraps. We are a small, volunteer-run site with limited capacity. We encourage you to bring your organics to one of the following local GrowNYC drop-off sites with greater capacity:

  • 7th Ave B/Q subway stop (at Park Place and Carlton Ave): Thursdays, 8 am – 11 am
  • Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket: Saturdays, 8 am – 3 pm
  • Crown Heights Farm stand (Franklin Ave and Eastern Parkway): Thursdays, 8:30 am – 11:30 am

See the http://grownyc.org/compost website for the latest details on these drop-off sites.

By following these rules, you can help us continue providing this valuable service to the community. Thank you for participating in community composting!

 

*While some of these items are compostable, we cannot accept them at our site because they either attract rodents or do not break down fast enough in our system.