We’re so thrilled to celebrate 10 Years of Big Reuse! That’s a decade of bringing together NYC residents to care for their green spaces, embrace composting, and divert items from the landfill. Big Reuse would not be able to fulfill its mission without our community partners, volunteers, supporters, donors, and neighbors who volunteer their time at our street tree care sessions, get their hands dirty while processing compost, and donate their items to our Reuse Center! Big Reuse’s programs are aimed to empower New Yorkers with the resources, community, and education they need to effectively steward their environment and incorporate more sustainable practices around reuse, compost, and tree care.
Big Reuse’s Community Composting program, which has been running since our founding, maintains regular food-scrap drop off sites in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. We’ve also maintained relationships and hosted compost volunteer events with urban farms SkyFarm, Smiling Hogshead Ranch, and Randall’s Island Urban Farm.
Big Reuse’s Curbside Compost Outreach team began engaging with NYC communities in 2017, giving New Yorkers the tools and information they need to separate their food scraps, food-soiled paper, and yard waste to be composted through the city’s mandatory curbside composting program. This dedicated team resumed their work in March 2025, providing educational materials to New Yorkers with questions about the city’s evolving composting guidelines, leading workshops for tenants on making sure their building is compliant, and providing kitchen containers to easily collect food scraps in NYC apartments.
Since 2022, our street tree care team has been bringing together neighbors and community partners to make sure NYC’s trees get the love they need to thrive in an urban environment. What started as an initiative supported by New York City Councilmembers in 9 districts across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens has grown to 15 Councilmembers and additional funders and now includes work in the Bronx. We’ve teamed up with block associations and community partners like New York Restoration Project, Flatbush Food Coop, Clean Bushwick Initiative to host volunteer events and create lasting bonds! Next year we will plant at least 140 new trees in Brooklyn and Queens.
Our Reuse Center (thrift store) at 1 12th Street in Gowanus has been doing great work keeping secondhand materials out of landfills and giving them new homes since the organization’s founding in 2015. In addition to home goods, clothing, and books, the Gowanus Reuse Center has been able to accept donations of larger building materials like lumber, antique doors, and stone and glass panels that would have otherwise been discarded. We’re so excited to be able to further this work with our new thrift store opening this winter in Bushwick! This Reuse Center (thrift store), located on 378 Troutman Street, will sell and accept donations of smaller home goods, clothing, accessories, and books.
As we celebrate ten years of Big Reuse, our community continues to grow in inspiring ways. This year, we partnered with youth to build and install tree guards in neighborhoods across Brooklyn, cared for neighborhood trees with local volunteers and community groups, and prepared to open two new composting sites that will soon give even more New Yorkers the chance to turn food scraps into something much more meaningful. Our Compost Cube installations at community gardens and urban farms are helping those spaces thrive with fresh, locally made compost.
This year at our Reuse Center, we’ve seen a record number of materials find new homes instead of heading to the landfill, thanks to the generosity of donors, volunteers, and shoppers. With our new Bushwick location opening soon and the return of our Curbside Compost Outreach team in March 2025, we are excited to keep growing together and creating more ways for New Yorkers to care for their city and their planet.
It’s been an incredible 10 years of building relationships and bringing together neighbors – we’re excited for all the compost, neighborhood street trees, reuse, and community partnerships that are in our Big future!
What to get involved with Big Reuse?
→ We have Street Tree Care volunteer events across Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx in New York City. Find one near you.
→ Help process compost that goes back to greenspaces in New York neighborhoods at SkyFarm, Randall’s Island, and Smiling Hogshead Ranch.
→ Donate your secondhand items to our Reuse Center which accepts donations daily from 10AM-5PM. Have a larger item you’d like to donate? Request a truck pick-up!
→ Shop at the Reuse Center.
→ Volunteer at the Reuse Center every first Tuesday of the month.
→ Make a donation to support Big Reuse’s community-based environmental programming!
Big Reuse - Gowanus
1 12th St, Brooklyn, NY 11215
Open daily from 10am-6pm
Donation hours 10am-5pm
Big Reuse - Bushwick (Stay tuned for information on the opening!)
378 Troutman St, Brooklyn, NY 11237