Our Story

Right around Earth Day 2020 and at the peak of COVID-19 in NYC, farmers were struggling to distribute their produce and the city had suspended all composting options, so we thought to close the loop between produce + compost by doing farm-fresh food deliveries + organic waste pickups.

When New York City stopped collecting compost on May 4, 2020, which was also International Compost Awareness Day, we knew we needed to do something. Immediately, we spread the word among friends and started doing our door-to-door Bin Swaps.

The city finalized the 2021 Executive Budget on June 30th—cutting the year’s $28 million allowance for composting down to only $2.86 million. This eliminates two essential programs: the citywide residential brown bin collection and many compost drop-offs throughout the city.

Besides our Bin Swaps, we also set up our Compost Hub program so more people have access to food scrap drop-offs. Let’s #saveourcompost together.

Watch this mini-documentary by Nowhere Men on how we got started!

Meet the Founder

Vivian Lin is a sustainability enthusiast born and raised in Midwood, Brooklyn. Being from lower Brooklyn, she has realized that many of NYC’s most valuable resources, including brown bins, Greenmarkets and even Citi Bikes, don’t reach a majority of the city’s population. It’s important to her that these programs become accessible to all.

Vivian is trained as an architect but recently left her design career to fill the massive composting gap in New York City. She is interested and curious about almost everything and is happiest when traveling, petting dogs, at an art museum or simply being outside. Funny enough, for someone who started a delivery and pickup service, Vivian doesn’t even know how to drive but that doesn’t stop her. She is determined to make NYC a greener place to live.

Carlie Huang

is a Bay Area computer scientist. When she's not fake laughing in front of a basic tourist attraction, you can usually find her staring at a screen. As a big proponent of technology for social change, she's using her skills to help Groundcycle grow.

Wendy Li

is a native New Yorker who loves to help her community. In her free time, you can find her chatting with friends over a cup of tea. Wendy hopes to see people come together + be kind to our planet and is the friendly face of Groundcycle’s deliveries.

And a huge thank you to Groundcycle's Founding Members!

● Alexis Donovan ● Amanda Rowe ● Amer Jandali ● Andree LaTortue ● Ann Charleston ● Anne-Laure Lemaitre ● Brian Parcon ● Catrina Yee ● Chelsea Shugert ● Chioke Nassor ● Christina Barreiro ● Cody Seipp ● Connie Wu ● Cynthia Lee ● Daniel Herrera ● Donna Xu ● Elton Sun ● Gabrielle Chappel ● Hua Chen ● Joy Watts ● July Choi ● Katie Vason ● Katie Clark ● Kelly Lee ● Lindsey Petchel ● Nitika Daga ● Noelle King ● Patrick Dunham ● Rachel Dainer-Best ● Samantha Zhou ● Samantha Manock ● Sarah Han ● Scott Johnson ● Sean Colgan ● Silver Chang ● Stella Kong ● Stacy Xie ● Stephanie Yeow ● Tiffany Tan ● TJ Williams ● Valerie Farber ● Vicki Wen ● Victoria Rey ● Viktoriya Krichevskaya ●