We the undersigned urge Mayor Adams and Commissioner Donoghue to reverse NYC Park Department's decision to evict Big Reuse from their community composting site underneath the Queensboro Bridge.

We are community groups, environmental organizations, gardens, and advocates for a more sustainable city.   Community Composting should be considered an essential part of operations hosted by and supporting Parks.

We urge you to provide Big Reuse with a new renewable license agreement to allow them to continue to provide Queens with critical climate-focused community composting, urban agriculture and green infrastructure programs - as they have for the last decade. 

Parks does not need to evict Big Reuse in order to build the Queensbridge Baby Park extension because Big Reuse's community composting site is not in the footprint of the Queensbridge Baby Park extension.  Parks is  moving a small sector operations parking lot from the footprint in order build the new park.  Parks should move to sector operations to a nearby underused 22,000 sqft Parks parking lot under the Queensboro Bridge with space for 25 vehicles and 10 storage containers - instead of evicting Big Reuse. 

Residents advocated for the community composting site remain in both 2021 and 2022 NYC Parks Community Input meetings for the Baby Queensbridge Park.  NYC Council Members Julie Won, Park Committee Chair Shekar Krishnan and 13 additional Council Members and counting have demanded that Big Reuse remain on the site.  Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and both local Queens Community Boards 1 & 2 have submitted letters of support.  NRDC and NYC Bar Association have asserted that the composting site is an appropriate use of Parks space.  In moving forward with eviction, Commissioner Donoghue is ignoring the input of the community residents and democratically elected officials who represent them.  

Last year, Big Reuse's Queensbridge site composted 370,000 lbs of Parks' leaf and yard waste with residential food waste and produced 700 cubic yards of high-quality, screened compost.  Most of the compost is provided to Parks Horticulture and GreenThumb.  The site also provided compost to over 200 schools, community gardens, street tree care events and greening projects.  Since 2011, Big Reuse has composted over three million pounds of Parks' leaves and wood chips and provided over 3,000 cubic yards of high-quality compost back to Parks, reducing Parks CO2 emissions from landfilling leaf and yard waste by 550 tons. 

Many of our organizations have benefited tremendously from Big Reuse's work and compost.  Big Reuse has delivered compost to many organizations from the Queensbridge site - supporting urban agriculture, community gardens and greener neighborhoods.   The site has hosted volunteer days and tours that provided community engagement at the Parks site that will no longer be available when it is converted into an operations parking lot.   Without the Big Reuse composting site - the city loses both compost and green infrastructure support.  Western Queens will be unnecessarily deprived of a community asset for an unneeded Parks parking lot.

Mayor Adams and Commissioner Donoghue - please provide Big Reuse with a renewable license agreement so they can continue to provide compost to community organizations and Parks.  

45th Street Green Space  

Center for Zero Waste Design

Common Ground Compost 

Community Solidarity 

Disabled In Action of Metropolitan NY  

Down to Earth Farmers Markets 

Eastern Queens Alliance: Idlewild Environmental Learning Center

Flatbush Food Co-op  

Greenpoint-Williamsburg CSA 

GrowNYC Workers Collective  

JHScraps/JHBG  

Long Island City Partnership  

Lower East Side Ecology Center

Natural Resources Defense Council

Nurture BK Compost

Open Plans

Open Source Gallery

The Poppa & Momma Jones' Historic Community Garden  

Roosevelt Island Garden Club_Community Garden  

Sunnyside Woodside Mutual Aid  

Sunset Park CSA 

Transportation Alternatives

Upper Green Side