Composting in the Neighbourhood

Composting has never been more simple! Join our initiative to prevent food waste from being burned, contribute to climate solutions, and maintain a fresh, clean kitchen. We provide an airtight container, a Bokashi bin, for storing your food waste.

This enables you to collect and separate waste without concern for decomposition or rot.
When the bin is full, or when you choose to empty it, you can bring it to our compost house, which is accessible 24/7, and swap with a clean bin. There's no fuss or mess, just a continuous cycle of waste conversion.

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A quick overview on how it works

With the Compost Club you can now seperate your food waste.   We will compost it for you in the Kaskantine!

Step 1: Get Your Bokashi Bin

We provide an airtight Bokashi bin for deposit of 25 euros storing your food waste. This specialized container allows you to collect and separate waste without worrying about decomposition or rot.

Step 2: Convenient Waste Drop-off

When your bin is full or when you're ready to empty it, simply bring it to our accessible 24/7 compost house. No fuss or mess—just swap your full bin for a clean one, ensuring a continuous cycle of waste conversion.

Benefits of Separating Your Food Waste and Composting

Tangible Climate Action: Composting is a tangible and effective action against climate change.

Nourishment for the Soil: Your food scraps will be transformed into nourishment for the soil.

Odorless Composting: Enjoy odorless composting with the added bonus of built-in fertilizer for your home plants.

Cleaner Kitchen Bins: Experience a cleaner kitchen with fewer bags of rubbish to take to the municipal dumpster.

Membership Costs

After your one-month trial, you can choose to become a member for just 5 euros a month. This small fee helps support our initiative and ensures the continuation of your sustainable waste management journey.

Join the Community

We invite you to be part of our private online community network. Share tips, connect with fellow composters, and be a part of a community committed to sustainable living.

How to Sign Up?

You can borrow a bin from us with a deposit of 25 euros. Enjoy a one-month trial period, and if you decide to keep it, the annual membership fee is 60 euros. To sign up, visit our Shop Page and pay the deposit for the bin. Pick up your initiative kit every Friday and experience the ease of waste management.

Our Subscription Model: Community Supported Composting

De Kaskantine Compost Club is committed to closing the loop on food waste and keeping it as local as possible. Composting organic waste instead of burning it in an incinerator reduces greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, while promoting a sustainable and eco-friendly approach to waste management. We hope you'll join us!

​To provide composting services in the most sustainable way, we have implemented a subscription model where members contribute financially to cover the costs. This is because we cannot rely solely on subsidies and volunteer work to operate the composting site: this is not a sustainable model over the long term. 

Your membership contribution is essential in making the neighborhood composting site possible and allows us to invest in providing a reliable system and educating the community.

Additionally, we are actively seeking financial support from local businesses to ensure that the costs of labor, operation, education, and maintenance are covered, making composting accessible to everyone.

Our goal is to start with a composting program for 45 households and then expand our reach and educational efforts to more households in the future, creating additional job opportunities. We are grateful to a local neighborhood fund for providing the initial investment for materials.

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Composting Membership Levels

Households	Offices
5 Euros per month	25 Euros per month
Compost Club Membership for one bucket	Compost Club Membership for bucket transport service
Access to our online platform with educational content and to connect with other composters and community members	Access to our online platform with educational content and to connect with other composters and community members​
Community Dinner 1x per year ​(end of Summer)	Community Dinner 1x per year ​(end of Summer)
-Receive a composting starter kit: - a 5-litre composting bucket with a lid  -A welcome letter with all the details needed to get you started  -A handy list of items you can and cannot compost	-Receive a composting starter kit: - a 5-litre composting bucket with a lid  -A welcome letter with all the details needed to get you started -A handy list of items you can and cannot compost

The process starts in your kitchen

Our goal is to make composting as simple and easy as possible. Here's what you need to do:

• Know what to compost: Fruits, vegetables, nutshells, coffee grounds & filters, tea leaves & non-plastic teabags, cooked leftovers (vegan), bread, small pruning waste
• Chop up your scraps into small pieces so it breaks down more easily.
• Drop it off:
  • We have a box located in front of De Kaskantine with a combination lock, where you can drop off your food scraps whenever you like.
  • When you arrive, weigh your scraps and add the weight to our log book so we can keep track of your positive impact. 
  • Then throw your scraps into the bin, sprinkle with Bokashi bran, and close it. 
• ​We'll handle the rest! We'll take your food scraps and process them through our hot composting system, ensuring a proper balance of green and brown materials, moisture levels, and regular turning to make it into compost!

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Frequently Asked Questions

WHAT CAN I COMPOST AT KASKANTINE COMPOST CLUB?

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Nutshells
• Coffee grounds & filters
• Tea leaves & non-plastic teabags
• Cooked leftovers (vegan)
• Bread
• Small pruning waste

All organic waste needs to be chopped small so that it can break down more easily when being composted. ​

Why Can't I compost Animal Products?

Although animal products are able to decompose during the composting process, our site does not accept them. Animal products tend to have a much stronger smell than kitchen scraps (which can attract pests), and also pose a higher risk for the spread of harmful bacteria such as salmonella. For these reasons, we are maintaining a animal-product free compost site. ​

How Often can i drop off my food scraps? 

As often as you'd like! Most of our composters like to drop off their scraps one time each week, but feel free to swing by whenever you'd like. Our membership levels are based on the number of people in your household which helps us to estimate how many scraps you'll have on average each week, but it doesn't matter if you drop the scraps off once a week, twice a month, or everyday! You decide. 

Won't my food scraps smell?

Your food scraps shouldn't smell any more or less than they already do when you collect them in your regular rubbish bin, and most members find that their scraps have no noticeable odour at all. Your membership however does include a 5-liter bucket with a lid for collecting your kitchen scraps. The lid helps to keep odours contained until you are ready to drop your compost off.

To keep the bucket clean, we recommend lining it with old newspapers. If you do not have access to newspapers, you may want to consider using paper towel or paper at the bottom of the bucket to absorb moisture and prevent scraps from sticking.

And of course be sure to wash your bucket regularly. By following these tips, you shouldn't have to worry about smelly food scraps!

Can i also learn to compost?

Yes, our goal is always to educate and build skills. As a member, you will have the possibility to join workdays, workshops, and our private online network with resources that are created to build knowledge. ​​

Can I compost bokashi?

Yes! Bokashi is an excellent composting method, especially for those with houseplants or balcony gardens. The resulting liquid can be diluted and used as a nutrient-rich fertilizer for the plants. Once done, simply discard your Bokashi, along with your kitchen scraps, at the designated drop-off location.

​​DE KASKANTINE IS NOT CLOSE TO MY HOUSE. WHERE ELSE CAN I COMPOST IN AMSTERDAM?

​The city of Amsterdam's goal is that by the year 2030, 73% of households will have the possibility to recycle organic waste. Our composting program is helping the city to find ways to reach that goal, but we are not alone. If Kaskantine is not conveniently located for you, consider checking out some of these other Amsterdam composting initiatives:

• Avfal Naar Oogst
• Grow It Away
• Amsterdam Neighbourhood Composting Map
• Worm Hotels Amsterdam