Drop-off Food Scraps

Yes! If you have a backyard, buy a plastic compost bin at Pemberton Farms (2225 Mass Ave), Tags Hardware (29 White St), or Boston Building Resources (100 Terrace St). Pemberton Farms will sell the same compost bin that Cambridge DPW offered in the past, for $60.

Even if you don't have outdoor space, you can compost indoors with worms.

• All vegetable & fruit scraps
• Coffee grounds, filters & tea bags
• Eggshells & nutshells
• Grains & baked goods
• Meat, fish, bones, cheese (Please wrap in newspaper or paper bags)
• Food-soiled napkins & paper towels (no tissues)
• Food-soiled, biodegradable paper products
  (Only US Composting Council certified, no plastic coated. Click here for approved products.)
• Wine corks (no plastic)

Collect food waste in a paper bag, 5-gallon pail or another reusable container. Reuse a kitty litter container as a food waste scrap bucket!

You can line your food waste collection container with a paper bag, compostable bag (US Composting Council certified) or a regular plastic bag. If you use a regular plastic bag, please empty it into the brown toter and bring the dirty plastic bag home to dispose with your household trash.

• No soup
• No liquids
• No grease
• No chinese takeout containers
• No plastic
• No Styrofoam
• No metal
• No glass
• No non-biodegradable items
• No pet or human waste
• No compostable diapers
• No yard waste

Any food-soiled napkins, paper towels are OK. For plates, cups, trays, etc. visit the Biodegradable Products Institute website to see a list of approved products that have the US Composting Council logo.

Pizza boxes are OK. However, please help us maximize space in the toters by only bringing the food-soiled part of the box. Rip off the clean side of the pizza box and recycle with your papers for curbside pickup or in the cardboard compactor at the Center.

No. Yard waste has never been accepted at the Center because we do not have the space for it. Please prepare yard waste for weekly curbside collection beginning the first FULL week in April through the second FULL week in December.

We cannot accept anything soiled with human waste for sanitary reasons.

It is extremely important that we manage this program in a clean manner in the DPW yard to ensure that it is a continued success.

It depends on you. Please remember that we will only accept it when the Recycling Center is open to the public: Tues/Thurs 4-7:30pm and Sat 9-4pm.

• Rinse it out at home 
• Use a paper bag as liner 
• Compost napkins, paper towels and biodegradable paper products
• Wrap meat in newspaper or paper bags 
• Try freezing food scraps
  

Yes!

• Whole Foods at 115 Prospect Street accepts food scraps from customers everyday from 7:30am-10:30pm. The toters for organics are located in the rear of the parking lot on the left  side.

• The Winter Farmers Market accepts food scraps from residents only (not vendors) on Saturdays from 10am-2pm, January-April in the gym of the Cambridge Community Center at 5 Callender St, in the Riverside neighborhood.  The toters for compost will be kept on the Howard St side of the building. Residents can place food scraps in these toters when the market is not open. Just know the combination lock (code 480) to open the toters. Please always replace the lock afterward.

Save That Stuff, a local recycling hauler, will pick up the food waste and bring it to a composting facilities in Massachusetts.