AMSTERDAM, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Along with hot summer days comes a less pleasant experience — the smell of trash.

Now, a local community is giving people an option to dispose their waste while helping the environment.

“It’s super exciting because it was just a dream, and now it’s real, it’s obtainable, and I see it happening, and it’s affecting other people’s lives in a positive manner,” Grow Amsterdam NY Founder and President Bernadette Twente said.

Grow Amsterdam NY, a non-profit organization that teaches safe and productive composting methods, is back in action with new protocols in place, which allow members to drop off their food scraps in a safe environment.

“We have social distancing, and we make time-slots about 10 minutes apart, and we send everybody on the list an email, and if they have stuff to bring into the garden that week, they fill out a spot and they come in their slot, and to date we’ve collected over 2,100 pounds of food scraps,” treasurer Tom Twente said.

According to Bernadette, members take an online orientation teaching them the basics of composting and educating them on the benefits for the environment as opposed to sending your organic scraps to the landfill.

“When we take our food scraps and put them in the landfill, they don’t do any good for anything,” she said. “They just create methane gas, which is really bad for the environment. When you take your food scraps and bring them here, we make compost and then they go into the garden, which helps the environment.”

Bernadette also wants people to know that the community garden at 78 Wall St. is more than just a composting site. It’s a place for members to come and escape from reality while still still helping out the environment.

“We want to create green spaces in the city of Amsterdam, where people can come if they want to have a raised bed and grow their own vegetables, they can do that,” she said. “I mean, when you walk through that gate, you kind of feel like you’re somewhere else.”