High Five! It's Compost Giveback Season!

March 20, 2026

Seasonal Giveback Sites now in ALL FIVE BOROUGHS

The New York City Department of Sanitation is pleased to announce the start of compost giveback season, with the addition of a fourth and fifth seasonal giveback site. Seasonal giveback sites will operate in all five boroughs this year, and together with a robust series of pop-up events, thousands of city residents will be able to receive millions of pounds of free compost for their gardens.

The Department's Curbside Composting program serves residents in all five boroughs, making it the largest – and easiest – curbside composting program in the nation. To comply with NYC regulations requiring compostable material be separated from the trash, many residents simply set out their food scraps, food-soiled paper and yard waste in a marked bin for collection on their weekly recycling day. Rather than shipping this material hundreds of miles away to break down in landfills and emit methane, the Department of Sanitation put this material to beneficial use by creating finished compost for gardens or renewable energy.

Residents interested in getting free, finished compost must register for a specific date at nyc.gov/GetCompost. NOTE: Dates open for registration two weeks before each giveback event.

The seasonal sites, offering residents up to 10 bags of compost, are open April through September and are located at:

Brooklyn
459 N. Henry Street
Wednesdays and Saturdays

Bronx
570 Zerega Avenue
Wednesdays and Saturdays

Manhattan
2442 1st Avenue
Wednesdays and Saturdays

Queens East
235-69 Hillside Avenue
Saturdays only

Queens West
77-28 19th Avenue
Wednesdays and Saturdays

Staten Island
600 West Service Road
Wednesdays and Saturdays

The full list of pop-up events, offering residents up to two bags of compost, may be found at nyc.gov/GetCompost.

These bags of finished compost – certified by the US Composting Council Seal of Testing Assurance program – are made from food and yard waste at DSNY's Staten Island Compost Facility. Last year, the Department gave back more than 8,000,000 pounds of compost to residents, nonprofits and community gardens – all made from previously collected food scraps, food soiled paper, and yard waste.

Press Release #26-17