What’s Your Role?
ScanScraps makes reducing carbon emissions easy, quick, and fun. Read our FAQs below to learn more about ScanScraps, how organic composting works, and how you can contribute to a better environment.
Using ScanScraps is easy!
- Open the App, you will land at the Bag Pen
- Select the Scan a Bag camera icon from the menu bar at the bottom.
- If prompted, please allow ScanScraps access to your phone’s camera and location functions – thanks!
- The Scan A Bag screen will appear on your phone
- Place the scanner box on your phone over the QR code on your empty Scanny Bag
- The Scanny will instantly be added to one of the 5 slots in your Bag Pen
- Place the Scanny bag in the vented collection caddy.
- Add food scraps to the lined caddy.
- When caddy is nearly full, remove the bag.
- Take the bag and your phone to your designated food scrap drop-off site. At the drop-off site, open the App and from the Bag Pen, press drop button under the bag. You can also freeze the bag if you will drop it later.
- The dropped bag is now recorded in your account.
- From your account, see your totals, food scraps collected, carbon saved and ScanScratch earned.
If prompted, please allow ScanScraps access to your phone’s camera and location functions.
ScanScratch will be redeemed through the app. Awards will be added monthly for local coupons or rewards. You will get messages alerts as you ScanScratch grows.
The ScanScraps app is downloadable from Google Play Store and Apple App store. There is no charge for the app. Currently these are the only platforms we support.
Unlike plastic bags, Scanny compostable bags will be 100% consumed by microbes with the food scraps when composting. Compostable bags will not contaminate compost and they will not become persistent microplastics like a plastic bag will. Microplastics in compost contaminate soils and find their way into the seas.
At ScanScraps, our goal is to reduce carbon emissions. By using Scanny bags to collect and carry food scraps to a drop site you are divert food scraps from incinerators and carbon-producing processes. Each Scanny has a unique QR code which only works with the app. For the program to work you need a different Scanny each time. You can only scan a bag once. At ScanScraps, we envision a greener, cleaner more equitable world where food waste and other organic material is continuously recovered to help the environment rather than create harm by improper disposal methods. Improper food scrap disposal creates powerful greenhouse gases and contributes to climate change. Besides when you make compost you make richer soils. Our compostable Scanny bags are our tools to make this vision a reality.
The ScanScraps vented caddy works with the breathable Scanny bags. Together they allow air flow to circulate through the vents and bag around the food scraps. This minimizes odors and liquid accumulation. Note: meat scraps and fish scraps may have odors; those items can be stored in the refrigerator or freezer and added to the vented caddy just before taking the Scanny bag to the compost drop-off site. Check with your drop site to see if they accept, Meat and Dairy.
The USCC defines the word compostable (adj.) as: capable of undergoing aerobic biological decomposition in a compost system, such that the material becomes visually indistinguishable and breaks down into carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass.
For more information: https://www.
All compostable products should be certified as conforming to ASTM or other international standards in order to prevent greenwashing, and to ensure that the products do not create problems for composters or the environment. Meeting the ASTM standards (D6400 or D6868) requires individual ingredients to be tested for biodegradability (consumed by microorganisms), and the finished product to disintegrate (physically break down during composting), as well as be tested for plant toxicity and heavy metals. Certification in the U.S. is provided by BPI, The Biodegradable Products Institute.
LABELING IS KEY
To help prevent greenwashing and help compostable product providers clearly identify their products, the USCC, under the guidance of a Compostable Products Task Force, has produced several key resources.
After you set up the ScanScraps App, go to the ScanScraps website and request a starter kit. (Limited distribution only.) Get Supplies Here. Once the program is fulling running, there should be an alert for you to click yes for more Scanny bags. This feature is in the development stage.
Scannies make collecting food scraps easy. They are a companion to the vented caddy. The two work together to make the process from in-kitchen collection to drop-off as easy as possible by removing any unpleasant odors and liquid. The bag was designed with handles so you can easily carry it to your compost drop-off site. You do not need to tie a knot in the bag. Since it is not made from plastic, the Scanny bag will decompose along with your food scraps. The Scanny bag is part of a closed-loop system; its only purpose is to collect and transport food scraps
No, only Scannies are designed to work with the vented caddy. They have the ScanScraps QR codes that pair with the App. The Scanny Bag is a main component of the whole program. All the parts work together…including yourself. You can always get more Scannies when needed. There is no-charge for registered ScanScrappers.
The Scanny bag is NOT a plastic bag, even though it looks similar to one! The bag contains NO polyethylene which is what plastic bags are made of. Plastic bags are NOT compostable. If you’re not sure if a bag is compostable, check to see if it has a BPI certification logo. If it does not have that, do not accept any claim that the bag is compostable. Plastic bags should NEVER be used in composting! If plastic finds its way to compost and then into the soil, it can become microplastics. Scannies will not make microplastics. Scannies will be 100% consumed and turned into compost.
New York City Food Scrap collectors/composter volunteers gave our ScanScraps certified compostable bags the nickname Scanny, and we love it. It’s a lot easier to say and remember!
Great question! It’s very important to understand what can and cannot be composted responsibly. We have listed the Do’s and Don’t here.
If you are not in the NYC system, please check with your locality to see what is accepted and what is not. In most cases meat, diary and seafood may or not be allowed. So, just to be safe, check it out.