What's a Vokashi Compost Pod?
A Vokashi Compost Pod is a group of two or more neighbors that subscribe to our monthly collection service. This immediately reduces our carbon emissions and other inefficiencies by creating a single stop for multiple households. If you reach out to five or more neighbors, you can save almost 60%.
Vokashi wants to reduce our carbon footprint for collections by 30% through this Compost Pods initiative. When compared to other composing services--which truck their waste way upstate--Vokashi is the: low cost and LOWEST CARBON OUTPUT COMPOSTING SERVICE IN NYC.
How does Vokashi Work?
Vokashi uses the Japanese method of fermentation called “Bokashi”. We provide an airtight bucket and lid, a packet of the bran containing the original microbial inoculate EM-1®. The fermentation process preserves the food scraps reducing odors and pests when the bucket is tightly closed.
Every month we collect and swap your full bucket of fermented food scraps and leave a fresh bucket(s) and bran. We take your food waste to our local, NYC, Vokashi site (thanks to the Marine Park Golf Course!) and compost it to benefit New York City public green spaces.
How many buckets will I need?
Households of one, two or three who eat two or three meals a week at home will need just one bucket.
Households with more people or who eat more meals at home will need two buckets.
What are the costs?
Collection fees are based on the total number of neighbors in the pod. That is, 2-4 pod members = $23/bucket; 5-9 pod members = $22/bucket; 10+ pod members = $20/bucket.
There’s a non-refundable, $15 Annual Bucket Fee for each bucket.
Vokashi reuses all the buckets among its subscribers, but over a year there is breakage and spoilage.
Your first payment covers our startup fees, including delivering your buckets to your household.
There are no other charges.
What’s the monthly cost?
All pod members pay a flat per bucket rate based on how many households are in their Compost Pod. If there are 2-4 households, each household pays just $23 per month for each bucket that they have. If there are 5-9 households in the Compost Pod, then, each household pays $22 per bucket. For pods over 10 households, each subscriber pays only $20 per bucket, per month.
What’s my savings?
Small families typically have one bucket and if your pod has five or more households, that’s a $25 saving per month for your family. Not to mention the carbon footprint savings for our planet.
What’s the Annual Bucket Fee?
There’s a non-refundable, $15 Annual Bucket Fee for each bucket. While we clean and reuse all the buckets in circulation, there are buckets that will break and need to be replaced.
Initial and Renewal Payments
Your first payment covers our initial trip out to your location and the setup of your service. A month after your bucket(s) are delivered, we’ll come back out and swap your full (airtight sealed) buckets with freshly sanitized buckets–and you’ll also get a bag of beneficial microbe inoculated bran to sprinkle over your food waste. Each time we come out to pick up/swap buckets, you’ll be charged at the rate in the table above.
Bucket Swap & Bran Replenishment
On collection day pod members should drop-off their full, sealed buckets at a designated area (a chosen neighbor, a building recycling zone or central trash area). At a scheduled time, Vokashi team collects all of the buckets, from this single location, and drops-off freshly sanitized buckets and packets of inoculated bran. Depending on the number of buckets, Vokashi will leave them in a stack or separated.
Who are the other Pod Members?
While you need not know the other pod members, we encourage you to get to know them to help build community. All of the members of a Vokashi Compost Pod are typically located either within a single building or within about a one-block radius from each other. A flourishing Pod has 10+ households and they all enjoy an additional $3/bucket savings (the per bucket rate drops from $23 to $20)!
