Big Reuse Is Helping NYC Residents Compost, Care for Street Trees, Reuse, and Volunteer in Their Communities. At Big Reuse, Earth Day is Every Day!
Did you know that simple community actions like composting, caring for street trees, using food scrap drop offs (FSDOs), and volunteering can make a huge impact on strengthening NYC soils and trees, and making NYC more sustainable? As federal cuts threaten key environmental programs, local engagement is more important than ever. That’s where Big Reuse comes in—empowering NYC communities to fight climate change through zero-waste initiatives, tree care events, and composting programs.
Here’s how you can take action today!
1. NYC’s Urban Canopy: Care for Your Neighborhood Trees 🌳
Street trees play a vital role in cooling the city, improving air quality, mitigating flooding, and creating healthier neighborhoods. However, they need regular care to thrive! There are over 877,000 trees in NYC - and community groups, including Big Reuse, record the trees they care for on the NYC Tree Map.
How You Can Help Street Trees:
✅ Watch our Street Tree Care (STC) Workshops to learn best practices (Workshop 1, Workshop 2)
✅ Read our Tree Care Guide (English | Spanish)
✅ Volunteer for a tree care event and help maintain NYC’s urban forest (Sign up here)
✅ Request a street tree care event in Brooklyn or Queens from our Street Tree Care team.
2. Composting: Reduce Waste & Enrich the Soil 🌱
Food scraps don’t belong in landfills! Composting reduces waste, lowers emissions, and creates nutrient-rich soil. Your food scraps become compost that can be given back to the community and used on NYC street trees and soils. NYC’s composting programs are expanding—but they need your support.
Take Action:
✅ Visit our website to access our FSDO Map and find food scrap drop-off sites (Click here)
✅ Request a Curbside Composting outreach event to learn about DSNY’s mandatory curbside composting program (More info)
✅ Take a look at our Compost Teach-In workshop guide and learn about community composting in NYC (Click here)
✅ Volunteer with our Community Composting Team to learn more about composting and community initiatives (Event details | Randell's Island Urban Farm Volunteers)
✅ Advocate for continued community composting funding for fiscal year 2026—sign the support letter (Sign here). Thank City Council for funding community composting for fiscal year 2025!
3. Get Involved: Volunteer & Support Reuse Initiatives 🤝
Every year, tons of reusable materials end up in landfills. Big Reuse is on a mission to change that by promoting reuse, e-waste recycling, and community-led waste reduction.
Ways to Take Action:
✅ Donate or shop at the Big Reuse Center to support sustainable consumption
The Big Reuse Center is a community hub for sustainable thrift shopping, offering reclaimed building materials, furniture, clothing, and home goods at affordable prices. By shopping or donating, you help divert valuable resources from landfills while supporting NYC’s sustainability efforts. Every purchase and contribution directly funds our work in empowering the community to reduce waste and make a positive impact.
✅ Recycle your old electronics through our E-Waste Recycling Program. We also recycle paint and corks.
✅ Check out our environmental impact reports and see how much waste we’ve diverted from landfills! (See reports).
Help make NYC More Sustainable!
From composting and tree care to volunteering and reuse, there are so many ways to make a difference locally. With your help, we can build a Greener NYC—one community action at a time!
📢 Get involved today! Sign up for an event, donate, volunteer, shop at or drop off material donations at Big Reuse, or spread the word. Every action counts! ♻️
Want to stay updated? Follow Big Reuse on social media and share this post with your network! Let’s make sustainability a way of life. 💚
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Blog post written by Intern from CUNY Spring Forward.