February 14, 2025 update

Compost NOW promotes, supports and provides resources to several free residential food waste collection programs throughout New Orleans. We partner with several local farms and gardens who accept frozen food scraps on site, what we call “direct-to-farm” or “direct-to-garden” drop offs. We also partner with Audubon Park and with REALCYCLE at City Park’s Crescent City Farmer’s Market, who still offer “hosted” collections.

Our partners all run and are responsible for their own collections. Ideally, they notify us when they need to cancel a date / or close for an extended period of time so that we can update our website, Facebook and Instagram. Many of our sites do shut down during the hot summer months, and over various holiday periods. See current schedule* for Sugar Roots Farm, Crown Community Garden, Recirculating Farms (back from hiatus) Galvez Garden, Speak Easy Farm (closed until further notice), REALCYCLE at City Park, Pelican Gardens and Earth Lab in the Marigny (closed until further notice). We also promote collections at Loyola University (closed until further notice), Barcelo Gardens, Sprout NOLA (back from hiatus) and Sankofa Community Garden. If you are interested in having your drop off site added, please send us an email.

Please DO NOT drop off your food scraps outside program hours or if the bins are not there.

Leaving food scraps when/where they are not supposed to be can lead to ants and rodents, and makes more work for our amazing partners!

It's Mardi Gras season and Recirculating Farms has already sent in their schedule of closures (thank you). They will be CLOSED from Thursday Feb 27 to Wed Mar 5th (which means bins will not be out Friday Feb 28, Saturday Mar 1, and Tuesday Mar 4th).

VOLUNTEER AT THE IRISH CHANNEL PARADE! This year the parade is at 1pm on Saturday, March 15th. We are looking for volunteers to help collect any discarded cabbages, carrots, etc that may (unfortunately) be left behind so that they can be composted rather than sent to the landfill.

It's the easiest (and most fun) volunteer gig ever: watch the parade, and after it passes and folks start to leave, wheel over your bin (that we provide, of course) and fill it with food scraps! Please let me know if you can help. 

APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN! Our DIY Easy Backyard Compost Bin distribution program had a slight delay due to the uncertainty over federal grants (still not 100% resolved) but we are moving forward with our first batch of 25-30 backyard compost bins to giveaway. 

Please fill out our form here. We hope to distribute another 50-75 during International Compost Awareness Week, May 4-10. 

Expanded Hours & Collections at Galvez Garden (2317 N Galvez):

Galvez Garden has increased their food waste drop off hours to 10am-2pm every Sunday AND they will also be collecting aluminum cans in blue bins as part of their new partnership with NOLA Cans 4 Food (who use the funds from recycling those cans to buy ingredients for meals which get distributed to New Orleans Community Fridges and unhoused people in the city).

REALCYCLE is now only collecting food scraps and aluminum at the Crescent City Farmer's Market on Sundays (8am-noon).  While it has not yet been confirmed, my expectation is that they will not be collecting on Sunday, March 2nd but I will keep you posted as soon as I learn.

Be on the lookout for updated Mardi Gras schedules, which we will include in the relevant upcoming email newsletter as well as post on our Facebook and Instagram accounts, and on our website.

Thank you for your understanding and patience as we continue to transition from an organization that organizes and hosts food waste collections, to one which primarily supports and promotes the efforts of others.

*Check Compost NOW’s Facebook page for daily posts regarding updates and drop-off locations. We will try to mention other drop off sites that we are aware of happening throughout the city, as we believe it is important to offer decentralized locations in order to reduce “food waste miles.”

We also have Instagram but it is not updated as frequently.

Compost NOW is a residential food waste collection program. We promote and support multiple daily drop off sites all over New Orleans.

We also occasionally sell DIY backyard compost and indoor worm bins, but have not done so in 2022-2023. We are planning to bring this program back in Winter 2024/2025. Learn more here!

What to Bring

Frozen fruit and vegetable scraps (peels, pits, seeds), eggshells, nut shells, seed shells, tea bags, coffee grounds, filters, plain grains, plain pasta or plain bread in a paper or compostable bag or bring scraps in a reusable container.

NO MEAT, NO BONES, NO DAIRY, NO OILY FOODS.

Why frozen? Our agreement with the local farms, businesses, and public spaces that we partner with is that scraps must be frozen to avoid potential smells, roaches, and rodents. We never want to invite unwanted guests to these spaces!

Also, freezing your scraps means no smell, fruit flies, roaches or rodents for you at home. PLUS freezing breaks down the cell membrane, speeding up the decomposition process meaning an easier job for the farms we donate scraps to. It’s a win-win-win for everyone!

2025 Drop-off Schedule

The below schedule is updated as of February 2025. We hope you find these convenient, as there are typically multiple options every day, on both sides of the river. Our Facebook Page is the very best way to stay up-to-date (pinned post, upcoming events, daily posts or any last minute schedule changes we are notified about) and get more details for each site, as it can vary slightly. We also try to keep our Instagram updated as much as possible BUT ultimately we rely on our partners to let us know of any changes so we strongly encourage you to visit their social media pages to check for any last-minute cancellations or closures due to weather events or otherwise. Reminder, Schmelly’s Dirt Farm is open daily, 6am until sunset.

Daily

Sugar Roots Farm 9:00AM - 3:30PM at 10701 Willow Drive

Schmelly's Dirt Farm sunrise - sunset at 8301 Olive St

Please DO NOT drop off your compost outside of the days and hours specified above or if the bins are not there. Doing so jeopardizes our partnerships with these farms, businesses, and public spaces which allow us to host our free collections. Leaving food waste unattended will result in shutting down the location.

Thank you!

Mission

Our mission is to empower local residents to take collective action over the issue of food waste. Compost NOW started as a free residential food waste collection project in New Orleans, and has transitioned into promoting and supporting a network of decentralized drop off sites.

Founded in January 2017 by Master Composter Lynne Serpe, our ultimate goal is to build a network of community composters in every neighborhood in New Orleans. In the last 6.5 years, we have diverted over 850,000 pounds of food waste from the landfill. Food scraps go to local farms and community gardens where they are turned into nutrient-rich compost or used to feed farm animals. 

Our volunteer-run program was modeled after a similar food waste collection program Lynne started and ran with the Queens Library system—which is still ongoing years later. In the beginning, we worked with the New Orleans Public Library (2017-2020) as community libraries are models of reuse and resource sharing in a place that's convenient to everyone, across all demographics and ages. Like many, we had to pivot when COVID hit and find new partners. We started making and distributing low-cost backyard compost bins and indoor worm bins, and began coordinating “direct-to-farm” drop off options.

As we continue to grow, we continue to work with local farms, community gardens, public spaces, and businesses with like-minded ideas and goals for the community.

We look forward to building a sustainable future for New Orleans. Collectively, we can make a difference.

The video below is from our first year (2017).