Turning your food and waste into a circular system that engages your community
For nonprofits, community groups, schools, faith organizations and housing associations who want food scraps to turn into something the people who use the building can see and take part in. Collection is one piece of it. So are compost and garden programs, climate cafes, a compost operation at your own site, planting and tree care, and eco workforce trainings.
Scraps out, soil back, and nobody has to leave the building
We pick up food scraps from your site, or from every site, and weigh each bucket at the door. Staff and members learn to sort as part of it rather than after it.
- Collect
We pick up food scraps from your site, or from every site, and weigh each bucket at the door. Staff and members learn to sort as part of it rather than after it.
- Compost
Everything goes to our community compost site in South Brooklyn. Kids and adults can witness the magic as scraps turn back into soil.
- Grow
Finished compost goes back into your gardens, planters and native plantings, and into street tree beds on the block.
- Gather
Climate cafes and volunteer days bring members and neighbors into the work, and back round to the start.
And round again: the compost goes back into the ground that grows the food.
The soil creates the food.The food enriches the soil.
What we offer
Regular pickup from one site or many on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis depending on volume.
Sorting guides and short trainings, engaging people in the process for educational and recreational purposes, and so the building runs cleaner and diverts more.
Hands-on composting and growing, using your own space for a garden if there is room.
Your scraps composted where they are made, rather than hauled anywhere. We build it with your staff and run it until they can, at whatever scale the site takes.
Native plantings that look good and are easy to keep up, and street tree care on your block.
Hands-on training in organic waste collection, composting, and other environmental related fields.
Open workshops where neighbors talk about climate and what is happening where they live.
Who you would be working with
Held by Jade Banham for Marine Park, Paerdegat Basin Park and Canarsie Park, which is what lets stewardship work happen on parkland rather than beside it.
Jade holds Master Composter, Super Steward, Pathkeeper and Urban Gardening credentials, and teaches youth and adults.
In South Brooklyn, with the Earth Stewards volunteer community. Nothing we collect is trucked out of the city or sent to a digester.
Earth Stewards Enterprises LLC, doing business as NYC S.C.R.A.P.S. One entity delivers all of this and one entity invoices for it.
More about who we are on the about page.
How it starts
Three steps, and none of them is a contract.
A short call to hear what you are trying to do and who you are trying to reach. Then a walk-through of one site, to see the space and the waste stream with our own eyes. Then a pilot plan with scope, timing and cost.
We do it in that order because the alternative is quoting a building we have not stood in. A pilot is usually one or two sites rather than all of them, and it runs long enough for the people in the building to form a view.
- What happens to your food scraps now, and who handles them.
- Whether there is outdoor space, a garden, or planters already.
- Who the programs would be for: kids, teens, adults, everyone.
- Whether there is a budget, a grant in progress, or neither yet.
- What success would look like to your board or your funder.
Questions
No. Most organizations start with one piece, usually collection or a single program, and add others once they can see how it runs. Nothing here is a bundle.
It depends on what you pick, how many sites, and how much of it is programming. Collection is priced the way it is for any customer. Programs and planting are quoted as a piece of work. We would rather walk one building with you first than send you a number for something we have not seen.
Yes. Tell us that when you write and we will give you scope, costs and the diversion figures in a form you can put in an application, before anybody signs anything.
We are open to activating new routes and services in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Long Island at this time.
Earth Stewards Enterprises LLC, doing business as NYC S.C.R.A.P.S., a woman-owned South Brooklyn based company.
Please do. You get the weights, where the compost went, and sign copy you can put on a wall. We will post your site on our compost page once a batch your scraps went into has finished.