Archive

August 2022: Northeastern Towers Annex has won the 2022 Big Apple Brownfield Award as the best new development in New York City for Community Outreach.

The new building adds 159 apartments for formerly homeless and very low-income seniors to Jamaica, Queens.

Learn more.

May 2022: On May 14, 2022, OER hosted a soil giveaway at its soil stockpile with East New York Farms! and Big Reuse. More than 60 backyard gardeners picked up over 500 bags of topsoil and 300 bags of compost.

April 2022: OER celebrates Earth Day 2022 by offering free delivery of clean soil and topsoil to community and school gardens in Brooklyn and Queens.

November 2021: Combining clean soil and NYC Department of Sanitation compost, OER produced high-quality topsoil for NYC Parks. Learn More.

Photos of Topsoil Making

Topsoil stored at Bridge Park.
Soil From NYC Clean Soil Bank at Bridge Park, before screening.
Screened NYC Clean Soil Bank soil, ready for mixing with DSNY compost.
Finished topsoil, ready to plant street trees in the Bronx.

Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4
Photo Credits: Thomas Leung - NYC DOT (Photo 1) & Savanna Marino - GEI (Photos 2, 3, 4)

October 2021: Nonprofit developer West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing completes OER’s cleanup program and builds new affordable senior housing on NYCHA land in the Bronx. Learn more.

August 2021: Community composting group, BK Rot, expands its Brooklyn composting service onto a vacant City lot where they will make and distribute compost and topsoil, provide composting education, and create a community green space for Bushwick residents. Learn more.

June 2021: The New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) offers quality Recycled Concrete Aggregate (RCA) to private industry and community developments from its yard in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Learn more.

April 2021: OER opens a clean soil stockpile in East New York that expands the capacity of the Clean Soil Bank and advances reuse of clean soil in NYC.

Read OER’s Earth Day 2021 stockpile announcement.

May 2020: In Spring 2020, OER arranged delivery of more than 40,000 cubic yards of soil form the NYC Clean Soil Bank to the Department of Parks & Recreation. Learn more.

July 2019: East New York Farms! has opened New York City’s first stockpile of clean soil in Spring Creek, Brooklyn. Learn More.