Rebuilding our soil, neighborhood by neighborhood
Compost for Community Greening Projects
The NYC Compost Project hosted by Big Reuse has finished compost available for community greening projects. 
Taking it (compost) to the street!
The Hummingbird project was started by Samantha Levy, Masters Candidate in NYU’s Food Studies program, with the purpose of restoring soils in NYC. On Saturday April 30th, they had their first event caring for street trees in East New York using compost donated by the NYC Compost Project hosted by Big Reuse!
The event was planned in collaboration with Bahij Chancey at the NYC Parks Department Stewardship Team and Sadatu Usman, Community Gardens' Organizer at East NY Farms.  The team of staff, interns, and volunteers performed important street tree care steps along with adding twleve bags of compost to fifteen tree beds to improve soil health, lessen the effects of flooding from rain, and do a small part to mitigate climate change.  
The event was a wonderful success! The Hummingbird Project hopes for there to be more like it to improve environmental stewardship in the future. We applaud their work!
Compost in the community
Full circle on Roosevelt Island

On May 20th, the Roosevelt Island Garden Club and PS 217 made use of compost donated by the NYC Compost Project hosted by Big Reuse to amend the soil of garden border beds at the school. With the soil prepared, students and their families planted over 100 pollinator-friendly plants!

We send our encouragement to the active greening community on Roosevelt Island. You can read more about this project and all things green on Roosevelt Island at the RIGC website .
Food scrap drop-off news
We maintain 12 food scrap drop-off sites throughout 
Western Queens & North Brooklyn.
Memorial Day Closure: Our commuter composting drop-off sites at the Vernon-Jackson 7 and Steinway Library will be CLOSED on Monday, May 30th.

Drop-off schedule change: Starting May 31st, the Steinway Library drop-off will be open Tuesdays from 8-11 am.

Drop-off reopening: The Greenmarket at Socrates Sculpture Park is reopening June 4th, and we'll be setting up our food scrap bins alongside it every Saturday from 8am-2pm!

New Drop-off: We have a new drop-off site at Irving Square Park in Bushwick starting June 13th. This drop-off will be held Mondays from 8am to 11am .
Local composting events and opportunities

Newtown Creek needs all the love it can get! Join the HarborLab for a GreenLaunch Gardening Day May 28th and 29th.

The NYC Compost Project hosted by Earth Matter is looking for an Organics Recovery Coordinator! Read more about the position, and send applications to jobs@earthmatter.org by May 31st.

Win the power to strengthen the outreach, membership, and program-planning capacity of your community group! Applications for Capacity Fund Grants of up to $5000 are available now from Partnership for Parks!

Are you concerned about food waste in the city? Attend the NYC Council Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste hearing on reducing food waste June 7th at 1pm.

Stories that piqued our interest

Effective community engagement takes more than just the will to help. It may not be enough to fund high up and hope that the support will trickle down.

Freshkills Park Discovery Day gives Staten Islanders a sneak peak of the park.

The NYC Compost Project, created by the NYC Department of Sanitation in 1993, provides compost education and outreach to NYC residents, community groups, city agencies and non-profits. The NYC Compost Project offers compost-related workshops and classes, runs the Master Composter Certificate Program, provides technical composting support, distributes DSNY compost & mulch, develops urban farms, and tables at public events throughout all five boroughs. The NYC Compost Project also operates neighborhood-based food scrap drop-off opportunities and ensures that those food scraps are composted locally.
Our wonderful hosts
Big Reuse Queens
3-17 26th Ave. Astoria, NY 11102
718-777-0132 x2

Monday - Friday: 10am - 6pm
Saturday and Sunday: 10am - 5pm
Big Reuse Brooklyn
69 9th St. Gowanus, NY 11215
718-725-8925 x2
brooklyn@bigreuse.org

Monday - Friday: 10am - 6pm
Saturday and Sunday: 10am - 5pm
Big Reuse purchases and tax-deductible donations reduce waste and support eco-initiatives. We accept drop-off donations seven days a week, offer free pick up services for large donations, and provide deconstruction services for skim salvage interiors.