Learn about our work to divert food scraps from the trash and create compost!
August 2026: CPN and Orkestai Farm partnered to launch “Community Composting at Orkestai Farm” in Oyster Bay, NY. We are collecting food scraps from area residents and Orkestai’s CSA members in a free, registration-based program based at the farm. CPN’s three-bin composting system, which we built for our composting pilot project (see below), is now stationed at Orkestai Farm. We are thrilled to expand community composting to the Orkestai Farm community! Together, we will host compost give-back days for participants, work days to turn the pile, and education/community days to expand composting knowledge and technique. The farm will directly use a portion of the compost to support crops! Orkestai Farm is located within Planting Fields Arboretum State Park in Upper Brookville, in the town of Oyster Bay. Registration is now at capacity. To join the waitlist, click here.
March 2026: CPN launched a pilot program for residential food scrap diversion in the Long Island village of Upper Brookville, located in the town of Oyster Bay, in Nassau County. Much of Long Island lacks collection/drop-off systems for food scraps, even though organic materials account for estimated 1/3 of all waste. Ours is among the grassroots efforts to change that and catch up to NYC, which implemented curbside food scrap collection and has made it mandatory. Our registration-based pilot program accommodated 20 people and operated through July 31, 2026 on the grounds of Upper Brookville Village Hall, at 24 Wolver Hollow Road. We funded the construction of a three-bin system and taught our composters how to use it, what materials to add, the importance of layering their nitrogen-rich scraps with carbon-rich browns (leaves, woodchips, etc), the role of turning and aeration. Together, we diverted 1,146.21 pounds of food scraps from the trash and converted it into nutrient-rich compost, which we gave back to the community.
2024-25: CPN’s Kat Cervino completes NYC Master Composter Certificate Course, and is awarded the title of “Master Composter.” The certificate included classroom instruction with Queens Botanical Garden, New York Botanical Garden, Snug Harbor, and Lower East Side Ecology Center, hands-on training, and site visits to composting sites and community gardens throughout the five boroughs to learn varied approaches to community composting.
2022-23: CPN launched a volunteer-run Food Scrap Drop Off site (FSDO) in College Point, Queens, NY on Jan. 27, 2022 in College Point Park, located on 14th Ave. and College Point Blvd. We did this to fill the void created when NYC cancelled curbside organics collection during the Covid pandemic. Within 8 months, participation in our FSDO grew to the point that residents dropped off about 400 lbs of food scraps and yard waste each week! We launched our site in partnership with the NYC Compost Project at Queens Botanical Garden and the material was weighed and hauled by GrowNYC, In October 2022, GrowNYC took over operation of the site with paid staff members. That same month, the city launched curbside organics collection for the entire borough of Queens, and has now made curbside collection mandatory in all five boroughs. The College Point FSDO permanently closed in August 2023. NYC residents can put their food scraps and yard waste by the curb for collection very week on recycling day.
What items are compostable? Most everything that can decompose! For our community composting project, and in your backyard compost bins, you can include fruits and vegetables; eggshells, nuts and nutshells; flowers and houseplant trimmings; coffee grounds and teabags; and in small quantities, bread, rinsed pasta, and grains. (For curbside collection in NYC — but not for our Long Island community composting! — you can additionally put meats, bones, cheese, and BPI-certified compostable plastic products).
Are you new to this whole concept? Start small! Each week, choose an item that you’ll store separately from your trash, like coffee grounds or tea bags. Put them in a covered countertop bin, or store in the freezer in a bag. As you get into the habit, try separating more items, like, dinnertime veggie scraps, breakfast eggshells, or wilted flowers. You’ll quickly notice how much emptier your “trash” bag is.
Why is CPN engaged in food scrap diversion? One-third of household waste is “organic” – meaning, it has been alive/growing at some point. When tossed in the trash and dumped at landfills, organic waste takes up valuable space and releases a greenhouse gas (methane) that is at least 10x more potent than carbon dioxide. A smarter approach is to use food waste to make compost and renewable energy, diverting it from landfills. Compost is a nutrient-rich soil amendment, and also increases soil’s water retention.
What happens to the food scraps collected in NYC? Scraps collected at CPN’s site were hauled by GrowNYC to the Newtown Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Food waste and sewage sludge decompose inside of eight stainless steel “digester eggs” that are 145 feet tall and illuminated with blue light at night — you may have seen these near the Kosciuszko Bridge. There is no oxygen in these tanks, so waste is decomposed by anaerobic bacteria that produce methane and other byproducts to form a renewable natural gas. That gas can then be purified and used to generate electricity.The scraps will ultimately be converted into natural gas to power thousands of homes.
Other food scraps collected throughout the city are turned into compost that’s used in city parks and given out free to residents, and some scraps are shipped to composting facilities outside of the city. Read more about the program in Gothamist and on Waste 360.
College Point’s site was one of 200+ sites (some run by volunteers, other run by DSNY- and GrowNYC-funded staff) across the five boroughs. Other food scrap drop off sites continue to be operated, and smart bins are located throughout the city. Read more.
Special thanks to our Long Island partners: Orkestai Farm, for our community composting partnership; the Village of Upper Brookville, for providing temporary space for our pilot project; North Shore Land Alliance, for leaf donations; Wonderland Tree Care, for woodchip donations. Thanks as well to our NYC partners at: the NYC Compost Project at Queens Botanical Garden, who helped launch our FSDO in College Point; GrowNYC staff, who hauled our scraps and brought us empty bins each week; Big Reuse, for offering curbside composting education at our FSDO; and the NYC Parks Department, for weekly use of College Point Park and storage space for our toters.