We are filling our planet with trash...
But this bike-powered compost program
is providing a solution the world can follow
"BK Rot Pick-Up"
BK Rot is a community compost project
powered by youth who collect food
scraps by bike and process it into compost
at our site in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
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Every week we divert between
1,500 and 2,500 pounds of food waste from the landfill.
(Know Waste Lands)
When BK Rot started, there were no
public drop off options.
There was no curbside collection program
happening in our community.
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The youth pick up food scraps by bicycle,
emitting no fossil fuels.
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A youth rider, for example, on a Sunday, will go out.
They will collect from 20 different households.
They will bring it back to either
one of our partner garden sites or our site.
There, they will process it.
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The food waste is transformed into
high quality compost.
Food waste, like many other issues
in New York City, means that we
are really disconnected from where
our waste goes.
The act of composting creates so much
awareness for individual New Yorkers
of how much food waste they are
actually throwing to the trash or disposing.
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For black and brown communities in New York City,
we usually find higher concentrations
of waste and less access to fresh, high quality food.
With composting, we are helping to deal
with our waste in a way that does not harm our communities.
We also create a finished product
that helps grow a super nutrient-rich food.
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The finished compost is then sold locally.
BK Rot represents a localized economy
rooted in principles of environmental justice.
In New York city, over a third
of our residential waste stream goes to landfills.
From the start where it is trucked though
low-income communities of color,
to waste transfer stations,
and then even taken outside of New York City
to landfills that are also based
right by communities of color,
predominately black folks,
increasing a lot of the local air pollution
for those communities.
BK Rot is an active example
of climate and environmental justice.
We are creating fresh air, clean soils,
clean water, and protecting our environment
and our community's right to live
in a right way with the land.
BK Rot is run by young People of Color
who are paid $15 per hour.
The jobs provide the youth with
financial security and a safe space.
It has been a joy to work with youth workers
and see their transformation in
learning how we can responsibly manage our waste,
and really seeing them moving up on leadership.
It is just amazing to see how their eyes
awaken to a lot of the environmental
and climate injustices that are in our communities.
They can be part of the solution.
One of the most inspiring things
about BK Rot, thinking in a city context,
is showing how, within a city,
we can actively work together as a community,
uplifting youth leadership to transform
the relationship that we have with the earth
to something that is regenerative.
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BK Rot represents a closed-loop model
in which the job opportunities stay local,
the food waste is being dealt with in a local way
and all of the compost that is produced,
goes back to feed the earth,
and feed our communities as well.
Imagine if a program like BK Rot
existed in every community.
This could change the foundation of our nation
Share if you support BK Rot and environmental justice.
Learn more & support: www.bkrot.org
with support from Guerrilla Foundation
Rob Greenfield Films