Key Ingredients of Community

Composting: BK ROT

Guy Schaffer, BK ROT Board MemberCultivating Community Compost Roundtable

January 23, 2017 / Los Angeles, CA

BK ROT is a bike-based, youth-powered composting service based out of Bushwick, Brooklyn.

We collect from households and businesses.We compost at a city-owned park space.We sell or donate finished compost to gardens and households.

The project was founded in 2013 by Sandy Nurse, and she has co-facilitated it with Renee Peperone since then.

2013:• 2 youth workers• $675 in youth stipends• 36 households• 707 lbs/year• Hosted by a local community center

2016:• 7 youth workers• $15,837 in youth stipends• 80 households and 6 commercial accounts• 37,814 lbs/year• Managing its own garden

BK ROT works to introduce an alternative set of values into the design of organics recycling systems in New York City:

• Creating good work that is safe, self-directed, and respected; and training youth of color for these jobs.• Building local resource cycles that

are sustainable and benefit local residents.• Celebrating the labor that goes into

waste management.

I came to BK ROT in 2014 as a Ph.D. candidate interested in local compost systems.

Informal infrastructures: those built outside the realms of formal planning; the often use minimal resources, under-compensated labor, and are designed improvisationally.

What allows informal compost systems to form, function, and create changes in

the waste system of New York City?

• City support for local compost:• Grants for community

organizations.• Land resources.• Training for composting

experts.• The creation of a market for

compost.

• Resources available through social networks.• Space for hosting compost.• Fundraising networks.• Volunteer labor.

• Nonprofit, small business, and corporate support.• The incredible

commitment of coordinators.

• Design of workflow makes composting into good work.• Design of space makes

composting into public work.• Nonprofit status offers

stability, but also puts more pressure on unpaid staff.

KEY INGREDIENTS

OF BK ROT

BK ROT is designed with the values of good work in mind:• Meaningful work• Safe work• Educational work• Respected work• Positive, healthy work

environments

DESIGNING FOR WORK

Bikers pick up food scraps from households and businesses, and bring them back to Know Waste Lands for processing.

At KWL, workers chop up food scraps, mix them with browns, and add them to the four-bin system.

Frequently, customers stop by to drop off food scraps; they either pay a fee or chop the scraps themselves.

The youth workers turn the piles once a week on Sunday workdays.

After three months, material from the bins is added to the windrows and covered with overs.

BK ROT uses a diversity of composting methods:• Tumblers• Bins• Windrows• Worm bin• Bokashi

Experimentation is built into the system; tumblers serve as a space to practice with new methods.

This allows us to accommodate different kinds of involvement from different customers.

Sifting is mostly done by volunteers. Overs are added back to pile or used as windrow covering.

Youth are in charge of this composting space; they regularly have to direct and educate volunteers and customers.

Know Waste Lands has been designed to nurture a specific idea of what waste infrastructure can feel like.• Open location.• Public art.• Attractive garden with central

compost.• Youth and coordinators

keeping space active.

DESIGNING FOR SPACE

“…the prettiest dump in town.”-Brooklyn Paper

KWL is located at the corner of two busy streets, under a subway station, between two bus stops.

It is open on two sides, and is inviting as a shortcut.

It is surrounded by commercial spaces: a grocery store, pawn shop, pizza shop, café, bodega, and bar are all within view of the space.

Public art in the space was designed by artists of color based on ideas generated by long-term residents of Bushwick.

The majority of KWL is devoted to native plants.

The compost at KWL occupies a raised central space, and the bins are both functional and handsome.

The concrete pad puts the compost on display and also provides a solid platform for chopping, mixing, and moving equipment.

The presence of youth workers, volunteers, and coordinators makes the space open and inviting whenever people are working.

The BK ROT system makes compost inviting to neighbors. It puts waste management on display.

“We need to learn how to live with waste.”-Sandy

In 2015, BK ROT was able to register as a 501(c)3, as a training organization.

This may not be the final evolution of BK ROT, but it has been helpful in some ways.

NONPROFIT STATUS

Nonprofit status has enabled us to:• Participate in larger,

municipal grant programs.• Insure our bikers.• Participate in the BIC

composting pilot.

The process of filing has been difficult; the shift from informal to formal structure has required work that is difficult for our minimal organizational staff.

Intentional construction of community: Who is the community? What do they want? What community builds it? What community uses it?

WHAT COMMUNITY

COMPOST NEEDS

Institutional support: municipal space for composting, educational and material resources, funding.

WHAT COMMUNITY

COMPOST NEEDS

Support for organizers: more robust funding systems that can allow the important work of running green space to be compensated, regardless of organizational structure.

WHAT COMMUNITY

COMPOST NEEDS

Contact me: guy.schaffer@gmail.co

mOr Sandy and Renee:

info@bkrot.org