Baltimore Compost Collective

The Baltimore Compost Collective is a local service that collects food scraps from residences in Baltimore neighborhoods and composts the material at the Filbert Street Community Garden in Curtis Bay, where it is used to grow fresh produce and build urban food security.

It is also a youth entrepreneurship program that employs local teenagers and trains them in workforce skills, food access programming and community-scale composting. Youth workers are gaining guided, hands-on experience managing a small-scale composting operation and its expansion.

Compost collection bucket on a brick city front step. The sign on the bucket reads "Baltimore Compost Collective Filbert Street Community Garden"
The compost team smiling gathered together at a rally
The compost team smiling for a photo on a sunny day in the community garden
Painted wood signs at the Filbert Street Community Garden. They point the way to the herb garden, orchard, and outdoor classroom
Youth composter outside a workshop shed at the garden
Youth composters working outside in the fall
Marvin teaching school children about compost in the outdoor classroom
A young student holds a handful of rich soil, smiling at the camera with Marvin after learning about Black Gold (compost soil)
The Baltimore Compost Collective team gathered at the garden holding Black Gold, high quality compost soil

Thank you to everyone who came out to support us and made the 2022 Fall Fundraiser a success!

Support local youth, Community Garden and help move Baltimore toward Zero Waste one scrap at a time, pay as you throw.

Sign up for compost collection now!

Donation QR Code - Stripe Account Baltimore Compost Collective
DONATE today
Image collage showing "Shut it Down" written in front of the incinerator, hands holding rich earth, youth composters working in the garden, and smog over Baltimore from the incinerator. Text reads, "Compost. Learn so We Don't Have to Burn, Starve the Incinerator, Feed the Soil, Feed the Community! Clean Air for Baltimore"
Image credit: Greg Swatell & Marvin Hayes

This project is partnered with Ridge to Reefs, and generously supported by community partnerships with the Filbert Street Community Garden, Hoffberger Family Philanthropies, 11th Hour Racing, the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership, the Abell Foundation, the Robert F. Schumann Foundation, the 11th Hour Project, the Baltimore Office of Sustainability, the T. Rowe Price Foundation, and the Baltimore Children & Youth Fund. Special thanks to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) for their assistance over the years. The enterprise was inspired by the BK ROT model in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y. Thanks to A Few Cool Hardware Stores for their generous ongoing donations of equipment and supplies.

For more information, contact us.

Logos of partners and supporters. Ridge to Reefs, South Baltimore Gateway Partnership, Filbert Street Community Garden, A few cool Hardware Stores, 11th Hour Racing, ISLR Institute for Local Self-Reliance