((PKG))  COMPOST BIKERS   
((Banner:  Compost Bikers)) 
((Reporter:  Nina Vishneva))  
((Camera:  Aleksandr Barash))  
((Adapted by:  Martin Secrest)) 
((Map:  New York City, New York))   
 
((NATS)) 
((Pop-Up Banner:  BK ROT is New York’s first sustainable food 
waste hauling and composing service)) 
((Sandy Nurse, Founder, BK ROT)) 
The business itself is based on moving food waste, organic 
waste, from households and businesses, for a fee.  And so, Victor 
and Sonia, they go and collect by bike from about, a bunch of, a 
handful of small local restaurants, cafes. 
((NATS)) 
((Claire Conway, Manager, Little Skip’s Café)) 
So, we've been working with BK ROT for quite a couple of years 
now.  We're focusing on making sure all of our cafes are as green 
and eco-conscious as possible.  We're working to make this café, 
specifically, a little more sustainable in the kitchen.  No food 
waste, no, you know, paper products.  You know, it's a big goal, 
but we're striving towards that and BK ROT, kind of, incorporates 
itself into that as well. 
((NATS)) 
((Sandy Nurse, Founder, BK ROT)) 
Each week, we're doing about four to five thousand pounds (180-
220 kg.) a week from businesses that we bring into the space.  
And so, everything we bring in comes through here, comes 
through this giant pulverizer that’s in the background.  And we 
turn it into compost, and this material is then brought to different 
farms and gardens in this area and a couple other neighborhoods.  
People can come get it on the weekends.  They can come grab 
their bag and fill it up for a small donation, and then we also sell it 
in retail stores in a small, little bag. 
((NATS)) 
((Sandy Nurse, Founder, BK ROT)) 
So, one thing I found really amazing when we started to get into 
commercial waste was that New York City businesses produce 
about 650-thousand tons (590,000 metric tons) of food waste.  I 
think the visual they talk about is a 100 subway-cars of food every 
day is just going straight to the landfill.  So, what we're trying to do 
is capture this, create it locally and distribute it locally, with as little 
fossil fuel use as possible, and also use that as a model for 
building jobs and, kind of, making, like, educational spaces, where 
people can come learn about this, get more awareness about 
where their waste is going, how much food waste they’re actually 
producing, and how much of their, like, household trash is actually 
something that can be transformed for future use here. 
((NATS))