Compost Drop-off Program
Providing Cincinnati households with a residential composting option. Our compost drop-off program offers affordable, daily access to compost collection bins, so you can begin turning your household food scraps into soil today.
How It Works
Our drop-off program includes:
- Access to a clean, secure bin 24/7, allowing you to drop off at a time that fits in your schedule.
- The opportunity to put the nutrients in your food scraps to good use!
We offer sliding-scale payment options, between $5 and $15 per month, that allow households to pay what they can while participating in Cincinnati’s household composting efforts. The amounts shown on the sliding scale reflect our pursuit for equitable access to composting, while also ensuring we can maintain this service for our community.
Through this effort, we also realize that some households do not have the capacity to pay for service. If this applies to you, please reach out to us and we’ll send you an access code for free sign up.
Sign Up
Click below on your preferred location to sign up for one of our current bins.
College Hill – Fern (6040 Hamilton Ave.)
Covington – Redden Gardens (909 Scott St.)
Hartwell/Wyoming – Unity Christian Church (8359 Burns Ave.)
Hyde Park – Church of the Redeemer (2944 Erie Ave.)
Lower Price Hill – Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse Hub (911 Evans St.)
Northside – Growing Trade (3840 Spring Grove Ave.)
Northside – the Village Green (1413 Knowlton St.)
Madeira – Redden Fine Meats and Seafood (7701 Railroad Ave.)
Mt. Auburn – Flatiron Café (1833 Sycamore St.)
OTR – Northern Row Park (corner of Melindy St. and Clay St.)
Walnut Hills – Taft Garden (corner of William Howard Taft Rd. and Kemper Ln.)
Gift a Membership
Have a birthday, anniversary, or holiday coming up? Give the gift of compost drop-off to a friend, neighbor, or loved one! Send us an email to give the gift of compost drop-off, and we’ll provide you with a gift certificate to give to your giftee.
One-Time Drop
Have food scraps you only need to drop off once? Send us an email and we will reach out to you with information on how to access one of our drop-off bins. Pricing for a one-time drop is anywhere from $3-$10 – consider it a donation to Cincinnati’s composting efforts!
Host a Bin
Interested in hosting a bin, or know of an organization that might? Becoming a site partner helps create greater composting access for Cincinnati-area households. Reach out to us to learn how we can set one up.
What Happens to Your Food Scraps?
Every week, we collect and deliver the full compost drop-off bins to our composting partners – farms and gardens right here in Cincinnati.
Your food scraps are gathered into one big pile, where, with the help of many hungry microorganisms, they break down in a matter of weeks into plant-accessible nutrients. Contrast this to a landfill, where organic material takes years to break down through a process that releases methane, a gas much stronger and more destructive than carbon to our atmosphere.
By choosing to compost your food scraps, you are ensuring a healthier alternative, turning what would have otherwise gone to the landfill into a soil amendment that supports food grown right here in town.