About this project
New York City, on the whole, does not compost. The NYC Department of Sanitation points to density, collection costs, and lack of processing facilities as the stumbling blocks to city-wide municipal composting. As a result, the 29% of NYC waste stream that could be composted goes straight to the landfill. This means that all of the nutrients taken out of the soil will never again return to it.
This is where we come in. We believe that we have developed a method of organic material pick-up that will surmount all of these obstacles. We want to use low-cost cargo bicycles that would collect food scraps from small to medium sized restaurants, containerize them, and deliver them to farmers who would be in the city for farmer's markets and CSA drop-offs. The farmers would then back-haul the food scraps to their farms and process them into compost. This benifits the farmer by both improving the quality of their soil and potentially saving them money on fertilizer and other soil amendments.
We want to launch a pilot program in mid-August to test the viability of this model. In order to launch this, we need to develop bicycles capable of hauling this organic matter from the restaurants to the farmers. We have restaurants, farms and bicyclists willing to participate, but we need the bikes to tie it all together.
Help us create less waste and better soil.
FAQ
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118
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$7,204
pledged of $6,000 goal
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on September 1, 2010.
Pledge $15 or more
We will pick up a bucket of compostables from your home. At the moment, pick-ups are one-time and limited to certain neighborhoods. However, we will do our best to accommodate your residence.
Pledge $25 or more
You will receive a free item from one of our composting restaurants. As our campaign progresses, we are recruiting more restaurants; so, you'll be able to take your pick!
Pledge $75 or more
We will take you on a tour of one of our participating Urban Farms. You will see how farming and composting can actually happen in New York City!
Pledge $150 or more
We will take you to one of our upstate composting farms to see the foodcycle at work.
Pledge $250 or more
If you're this passionate about hauling food scraps with bikes, we'll let you haul the scraps yourself. We'll give you the bike for the day and you can connect the city to the soil!
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