Community Composting Projects
Yarducopia's Food Scrap and Leaf Drop off Sites
Composting Collection Sites: Yarducopia hosts two community-scale composting sites in Anchorage. These sites have active compost piles in the Spring, Summer, and Fall and we accept food scraps, leaves, and pesticide-free yard and garden clippings. At all locations there will be leaves and wood chips to mix with food scraps and cover the compostables you've added.
New to this? Want a demo? Reach out to Nick at 717 4392 to learn what and when you'll be dropping off and other aspects of the process.
Check MakeSoil for locations or to become a 'drop off' site. Two of the sites on the MakeSoil webiste are coordinated by Yarducopia:
- Midtown Garden Depot - 2930 Cheechako Street - near the front gate
- Spenard Community Garden - 1303 West 33rd - next to the LSS Food Pantry
Want to host a drop-off site? To keep it conveneint, it would be ideal to have drop off sites spread around Anchorage. So we're looking for more spots. Go ahead and make your own 'site' on MakeSoil and reach out if you're interested in getting support to set something up.
Kitchen Scraps Curbside Collection Program
Curbside collection is available! This is a weekly-biweekly pickup of 5 gallons of household organics like kitchen scraps and yard waste. We're starting with parts of U-Med, Tudor Area, and Campbell/Taku community councils (close to ACAT's office). If you're interested we'd love to hear from you - 907 717 4392 - Check out our flier here.
Feed Chickens not the Landfill
Food scraps can make an excellent addition to our backyard flock's diet and Yarducopia has food scraps to share. Whether you're getting the scraps from us or your own kitchen, I highly recommend adding leaves or wood chips along with the food scraps each time. This keeps the birds, microbes, soil, and neighbors happy. WE've got leaves and wood chips to share too). You're basically sheet mulching in your chicken pen making amazing soil. Reach out and we can try and connect you to these veggie and fruit scraps. Your chickens will thank you and we'd love to hear from you - 907 717 4392.
Other ways to compost in Anchorage
Calling all gardeners! Together we're trying to redirect high-quality food waste away from our landfill (where it produces methane, leachate, and costs rate payers $$) and instead turn those organics into compost. There's a variety of ways to participate and get involved. One or more might be right for you!
Indoors
- Vermicomposting (composting with worms) is a great option for turning household kitchen scraps into an excellent soil amendment. The worms are your pet. ACAT, in partnership with Tim Pritchett (of Tim's Plants, Produce and Worms fame) has built and installed 6 worm bins in the Anchorage School District. Bins can be purchased or constructed in a variety of shapes and sizes and are easy to make and easy to operate. The worms can eat roughly their body weight each week. Lots of tips and tricks in the two instruction booklets we made (booklet 1 / booklet 2). Individual questions welcome - We'd love to hear from you - 907 717 4392.
In your backyard
- Start a compost pile in your own backyard with your own yard and kitchen waste (Anchor Gardens has awesome tips for a 'Thriving Pile')
- Our Midtown Garden Depot has leaves and other materials to mix with your grass and kitchen waste
- We're here to help! Reach out with questions and for help getting started.
With a neighbor
- Use the website MakeSoil.com to find neighbors nearby who are interested in taking organics to feed their compost piles, chickens, etc,
- Advertise to your neighbors that YOU want to be a collection spot and compost for them
- Share the cost of a SWS curbside organics cart (the pink ones) with a neighbor.
With the community
- SWS operates a drop off site for food, yard, wood, and plastic at their Materials Recovery Facility - more info on this flier rates in 2025 were wood (free), food scraps (free), and lawn and yard debris is $5 for 4 bags or $20 for a truck or trailerload.
- American Landscaping also has a drop off spot for lawn and yard debris - $2 per bag and $20 per cubic yard (as of 2025) - Click here for more info
- Participate in our community composting program by dropping off organics (take a bucket, leave a bucket) at one of our collection sites where it'll be fed to animals and composted
- Help turn and manage one of our community compost piles and take home all the free compost you want
- Talk with your local store and restaurant owners about participating. We can help turn their high quality food waste into animal feed and compost for gardens and landscaping. Read about our partnership with Providence Hospital to get a better idea of what that could look like.
Have a question or need a hand?
Call our 'Compost Hotline' at 907 717 4392 or send an email to [email protected]
Our Cooperative Extension Service has several top-knotch composting publications
Priorities when diverting food waste
The projects feeding animals and composting food waste described above are only some of the ways to approach reducing food waste. Note the two highest priorities - reducing waste at the farm/garden & feeding people.