Quantity of Food Waste Diverted

Composting > bokashi process | Quantity of Food Waste Diverted | History…

ESB: El Sol Brillante
DEG: Down to Earth Garden†
See also our bokashi process done at El Sol Brillante and Down to Earth Garden.
For information about our food waste shredder, see here.

2/23/2026

    For Year 2025

    As of 12/31/2025, amount of food waste collected:
    Total ESB + DEG = 6,960 lbs (3,157 kg) 3.48 tons

    At ESB: 2,320 lbs (1,052 kg) 1.16 ton
    Last filled batch in 2025, #E360 — (Last batch number of 2024, #E344)
    360 – 344 = 16 batches
    16 x 145 lbs/batch = 2,320 lbs (1,052 kg) 1.16 ton

    At DEG: 4,640 lbs (2,105 kg) = 2.32 tons
    Last filled batch in 2025, #D655 — (Last batch number of 2024, #D623)
    655 – 623 = 32 batches
    32 x 145 lbs/batch = 4,640 lbs (2,105 kg) = 2.32 tons

    Click on tables and images below to enlarge.

    Comparison with previous years (for further details, see tables and graphs below).

    * For explanations on the batches for 2009, 2010, and 2011, see notes under the similar set of tables below.

    † DEG/CG, the Children’s Garden (CG) was renamed to Down to Earth Garden (DEG), approved by the garden members, on 7/1/2020.

    Brief Timeline

    9/22/20092010 – 3/22/202011/14/2018 – 3/20/20203/22/2020 – 5/3/202120212026
    Began fermenting 1st batch of food waste (FW).

    9/17/2009 Thu 6pm, 1st bokashi workshop at ESB.    		Began 24-hour drop-off (without signs or notices‡)Became a Public Drop-Off Site and listed on DSNY’s website; Sanitation picks up FW via brown bins 3 times/week (about 40% of dropped off FW [60% processed in-garden]).Closed to the public; Only garden members’ FW processed.5/4/2021 Began public drop-off again, but with very limited drop-off hours.

    9/22/2021 Back on DSNY’s website, map of public drop-off sites, but no Sanitation FW pickup.    		2/11/2026 Started giving part of collected FW (2 brown bins) for Sanitation pickup.

    ‡ People knew about the 24-hour drop-off either by taking the bokashi workshop, from word-of-mouth, or from seeing the setup (drop-off bin right inside the locked garden gate with enough of a gap to drop off a bag of food scraps).

    Quantities through 12/31/2025

    Click on images (tables, graphs) to enlarge.

    Ciao batches are food waste batches from a former coffee shop/bakery/caterer, “Ciao For Now,” that was located across the street from El Sol Brillante, collected between 2009 and 2011.

    Bin counts is how we determine how much food waste we’ve treated and converted to either a soil amendment (trenching/burying FFW in soil) or to compost (by vermicomposting or worm composting).

    bin = 20-gallon bear bins, for fermenting food waste.
    1 bin = 1 batch: approximately 145 lbs average weight when full.

    The brown bins are how the food waste were picked up by DSNY/Sanitation,
    between 11/14/2018 and 3/20/2020.

    How much food waste (FW) kept and treated in-garden, total of FW dropped-off/collected, and amount (difference) picked up by DSNY/Sanitation.

    Before 11/14/2018, all dropped off food waste were treated with bokashi (kept in-garden).

    The “All dropped off food waste” column represents both bokashi-treated FW and FW picked up by DSNY/Sanitation which starts from 11/14/2018.

    Bokashi-Treated Quantities Only.

    These numbers only represent food waste bokashi-treated and processed (trenched or worm-composted) in-garden (i.e., excludes food waste given to/picked up by DSNY/Sanitation).

    Numbers are averaged out over the entire year.

    For 2020, most of the food waste were dropped-off during the first 3 months of the year before our 24-hour drop-off setup was completely closed to the public on 3/22/2020.

    See our bokashi process done at El Sol Brillante and Down to Earth Garden.

    Note. In 2020, public drop-off was only from 1/1/2020 until 3/22/2020 (Jan-Mar) when the 24-hour drop-off was completely shut down for the first time since 2010.
    For the rest of 2020 (Apr-Dec), food waste/composting was restricted to garden members only. Public drop-offs started again on 5/3/2021, initially, with only one day a week.

    Bear bins = bear-proof airtight screw-top containers, 20-gallon capacity.
    (Imprinted on the container lid: EAGLE No. 1650, UN marking: 1H2/X57/S/11/USA/M4990 3mm)
    Average weight = 145 lb when full and compacted with food waste (bokashi fermenting food waste).
    For latest information and details, see bokashi-process.

    bear-proof bin