Drop off your kitchen scraps (no meat or dairy) at Common Good City Farm during our Farm Hours. 

Please do NOT leave bags or bins of food scraps outside the Farm gate when we are closed! This will smell and attract rodents and we will have to cancel this program.

To make this pilot program work well and keep the compost pest and odor free, we’ll need your help. 

 

 

1.   Collect kitchen scraps/food waste at home in a separate container. All organic matter is allowed (*see a complete list below) but no meat** and no dairy**.

2.   Bring your scraps to Common Good during our open Farm Hours.

3.   When you arrive, ask a Farm Staff person to show you how to add your scraps to our compost bins. (You can freeze your scraps until you have a lot and then drive them over, or bring them several times a week)

4.    A Farm Staff person will show you:

a.    To use the bin labeled “Add Here”***

b.    Dig a 12” hole (or deep enough to fit your scraps) into the material in the bin. 

c.    Dump in your scraps

d.    Cover your scraps with wood chips and/or shredded newspaper (we provide) and add a small layer on top of bin*****

e.    Wash your scraps container if you’d like with the nearby spigot and you’re done!

5.    We’ll turn your scraps into rich soil, which will help us grow more food! 

 

o   Coffee grounds and filters

o   Tea bags

o   Fruits and vegetables

o   Used paper napkins

o   Pizza boxes, ripped into smaller pieces

o   Paper bags, ripped into smaller pieces

o   The crumbs you sweep off of the counters and floors

o   Plain cooked pasta (no sauce)

o   Plain cooked rice (no sauce or oil)

o   Stale bread

o   Paper towel rolls (ripped into smaller pieces)

o   Stale saltine crackers

o   Stale cereal

o   Used paper plates (as long as they don't have a waxy coating)

o   Nut shells

o   Old herbs and spices

o   Stale beer and wine

o   Paper egg cartons (the light brown ones, ripped into smaller pieces - though your local egg farmer also might want these.)

o   Toothpicks

o   Bamboo skewers

o   Paper cupcake or muffin cups

 

While it’s not kitchen scraps, we’ll also take leaves, junk mail (without plastic windows or staples and ripped into smaller pieces), and non-glossy newspaper.

 

**While meat and dairy are compostable, they require a hotter compost system than vegetable matter and are more likely to cause a smelly compost if that high heat is not reached. While we may allow these items in the future, for now, please do not bring meat or dairy to the Common’s Compost bins.

 

***We are using a 10-bin rotational system at Common Good City Farm. We will be filling one bin at a time labeled “Add Here”. When that bin is full, we will let it sit for 3-6 months while filling other bins. By the time the 10^th bin is full, the 1^st bin should be ‘black gold” soil and ready to use on the Farm.

 

*****Adding woodchips or newspaper or other “browns” to the compost is critical to the compost bin working. Your food waste (“greens”) provides nitrogen to the compost, while these “browns” provide carbon. A 1:3 nitrogen to carbon ratio allows the compost to get hot and to thus break down the organic matter in it. Also important for the bin to work is it’s moisture level. We monitor the bins' moisture and water it or cover it as needed. For more information on composting, stay tuned for Common Good’s Compost Workshops and visit Cornell Cooperative Extension web site or the Environmental Protection Agency’s web site.