Who are we?
BK ROT is a community centered, closed loop, fossil-fuel free approach to food waste based in Bushwick, Brooklyn. We are New York City’s first and largest bike-powered food waste hauling and composting service and are rooted in the principles and values of environmental justice. Our project creates year-round environmental jobs for youth and young people of color, including women, LGTBQ, and undocumented youth, ages 17-24, in North Brooklyn. We engage our workers in well paid, positive, skill-based environmental job training and leadership development as they collect food waste from the community by bike – diverting organic waste from regional landfills – and produce high quality compost for urban agriculture and soil restoration projects. BK ROT’s work is modeling larger environmental justice and climate justice movements, such as a regenerative green economy. This Giving Tuesday we are raising funds to support our Youth Leadership Program, which is detailed more below.
Some History
BK ROT was founded in 2013 to address environmental justice (EJ) issues in Bushwick, where waste infrastructure disproportionately burdens marginalized communities. Bushwick is 87% people of color, with 25% living below the poverty line, suffering asthma rates that are over four times the city average.
Since 2013, BK ROT has created a model for a sustainable waste system in Brooklyn. In 2015, we launched Know Waste Lands, a 2,500 ft² community garden and compost site that processes residential food waste from neighbors. We now operate in five community gardens across Brooklyn, utilizing fossil fuel-free methods for food hauling and composting. In 2020 we launched our summer Youth Leadership Program, training 24 youth (ages 15-19) to date.
BK ROT creates sustainable jobs for youth while redirecting organic waste from landfills into high-quality compost, enhancing food sovereignty and local soils. To date, we have composted over 768 tons of organic waste and currently employ 16 people, largely youth of color from the neighborhoods we serve.
Today
As climate change worsens and gentrification continues the long legacy of environmental burdens faced by low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, localized sustainability solutions can help reduce emissions, protect public green spaces, and provide economic opportunities for local youth.
This Giving Tuesday season we are raising funds to support our annual summer Youth Leadership Project ! Our Youth Leaders program is designed to cultivate leadership in environmental justice, empowering young people aged 15-19, whose voices are most often excluded from the policy and systems affecting their communities. This eight week program takes place in the summer, with participants paid $16/hr for their participation, and involves field trips to other food, compost, and renewable energy spaces, workshops, and workdays at our composting sites. We also often offer year round positions to alumni of the Youth Leader Program; YLP is a starting place for youth pursuing a career in the local green economy. Your donations will directly support the next generation of Environmental Justice leaders in Brooklyn in gaining the skills and resources they need to transform this city. Our fundraising goal of $19,200 will support six Youth Leaders stipends for our eight week program!
Beyond donations there are many ways to get involved with BK ROT: if you live in the areas we currently operate in (Bushwick, Williamsburg, Bed Stuy, Ocean Hill, Crown Heights), we would love to pick up food scraps from your household or a business you have connections to, creating an environmental resource out of what would otherwise be waste. While DSNY has expanded their organic waste collection in recent years; the majority of it actually ends up in a wastewater treatment facility in Greenpoint, putting more greenhouse gasses in our lungs: BK ROT is another option! We also host monthly volunteer sessions at Know Waste Lands, the community garden we founded in Bushwick, where we also host a variety of events. You can also tap into our upcoming annual Black Gold fundraising drive which includes in person events in Brooklyn! 12/14 @ Brooklyn Art Haus, 11:30-1:30pm Sip & Sketch fundraiser (https://partiful.com/e/os1mQGvtyJGaA5oqK5LN?) and 12/15 at Til Death in Bushwick from 9-4pm where we will be tabling as part of a larger market. Hope to see you soon!
If you have any questions or want to get involved, check out our website https://www.bkrot.org/ email us at info@bkrot.org, or follow us on instagram @bk_rot !