GrowNYC is proud to announce the launch of GrowNYC Partners, a professional consulting service for food, farming, gardening, and recycling projects.

GrowNYC Partners will help businesses, foundations, and government agencies transform and empower their consumers and communities, spearheading sustainability througout New York City's private sector and beyond.  And as a non-profit with 40 years of success, we are dedicated to providing simple, cost-effective solutions.  

Whether you are interested in building a rooftop farm, a courtyard garden, or a citywide food systems strategy, GrowNYC Partners can help.

Learn more about GrowNYC Partners or email us for more info!

Since 2007, GrowNYC’s Office of Recycling Outreach and Education has been hosting community swap events to reduce waste and engage residents in the practice of reuse.  Stop ‘N’ Swap® helps keep good things out of the landfill by bringing together people with good things they no longer need and those who can use those items.  We have held 47 swaps so far, serving nearly 12,000 New Yorkers.  With the addition of two new staff dedicated to our Stop ‘N’ Swap program, we aim to dramatically increase access to these events.  Meet TK Zellers and Carl-Harry Nau, the team working to bring a swap to each of the city’s 59 Community Districts each year. 

What’s your favorite part of the job?

CHN: At a Stop ‘N’ Swap you have a diverse group of people show up all looking for something new to add to their life. Interacting with the folks at the swap is fun because you get a sense of who they are and why they are here, and I get to see cool new stuff. 

TKZ: Telling people who’ve never heard of Stop ‘N’ Swaps about what they are and what we do.  There’s always a moment of disbelief, and it sometimes takes some convincing to get people to believe that, for instance, ‘it’s totally free!’, but in the end everyone I talk to is impressed, happy, and excited to get swapping!  I’ve even got some high-fives, and one hug so far. 

Have you always been inclined to reuse things? 

CHN: I grew up in a house with two brothers and both my parents working their tails off to pay rent. So it was safe to say things like clothes, cell phones, video games, and toys were passed down from one child to the next.  I even took some items that my friends no longer wanted. Reusing is second nature.

TKZ: I always liked the idea of repurposing things for more creative uses.   Every gift I gave anyone until about the age of 16 was handmade out of old papers, cans, bottles and duct tape. My artistic talent didn’t ever live up to my aspirations, but it’s the thought that counts, and ugly or not, that soda-can-picture-frame stayed out of the waste stream!

What are some of the reactions you get when bringing a swap to a community for the first time? 
CHN: People usually ask whether we’ll be back the next week, or when we will return to the neighborhood.  Swaps receive a warm reception from those who grasp the concept of what we do and they also conjure feelings of regret by those who pass by and realize what they missed out on.

Does the swap change from neighborhood to neighborhood, or is it relatively consistent?

CHN: I have noticed the items that are swapped change from location to location. Some areas have more books, others have more house wares, and some areas have more children’s clothing.

The Stop ‘N’ Swap volunteers are pretty incredible.  What keeps them going?  Do  you stretch before the event? 

CHN: I want to say we have a great staff that works alongside the volunteers at each event. The staff leads by example and takes an “All Hands On Deck” approach during all aspects of the event. We also care for the opinions and concerns of our volunteers and take care to assign them to appropriate tasks. I will say stretching is not a bad idea!   

TKZ: We haven’t come up with a Stop ‘N’ Swap calisthenics warm-up routine yet, but we do make sure to supply everyone with plenty of food and coffee before and after.  I think a big motivator is how much fun Swaps can be.  You never know what you’re going to find at the sorting table, and impromptu fashion shows and ‘what-is-this’ guessing games are common.  Everyone manages to have a good time while helping hundreds of people find a new home for thousands of pounds of good, reusable stuff. 

What is one of your favorite swap moments? 

CHN: At our Upper West Side swap I spoke with a woman who came to gather items for her friends at a nursing home. She said that she had the ability to leave the facility and she knew that the others would have relished the opportunity to attend.  Later I was asked by someone from the neighborhood what items people like to take at swaps and I told her sometimes people come looking for items to help others, such as the woman from the nursing home.  At that point I created a connection between them and the lady who lived in the area left and returned with 6 new walkers, which went back to the residents of the nursing home. 

What do you hope people take away from the experience? 

CHN: I hope they understand that everything they own has value, and even though they may no longer need the item that someone else can use it.  I hope the joy people get from the items they find encourages them to continue to participate and bring their unwanted items so that they can have a second life.

TKZ: Besides a few pounds of reused items, I hope people leave Stop ‘N’ Swaps with a newfound respect for reuse, and a curiosity to find out more about using and wasting less.  There are so many resources to help people figure out ways to repurpose, repair, recycle or reuse anything we might otherwise just waste.  GrowNYC and Stop ‘N’ Swaps are a great place to start!

On Wednesday, July 17, Greenmarket will celebrate its 37th anniversary, and we’ll be partying into the night at Union Square Greenmarket’s first ever night market. In collaboration with Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer’s office, as well as over 15 neighborhood restaurants, the market will offer the same great summer bounty customers have come to love and rely on through the decades, alongside prepared food, live music by the Blue Vipers of Brooklyn and beer courtesy of Brooklyn Brewery.

Watermelon are officially in season, as are green beans, corn, okra, peaches and apricots. Fill your shopping bags and dine on summer fare while reveling under the stars at this Manhattan institution.

It’ll be a party for all ages-- we hope to see you out there!

Union Square Night Market and Birthday Party
Union Square Park - Union Square West and 17th Street
4pm to 8pm

View the full-size flyer below:

This spring, GrowNYC’s Recycling Champions Program held a recycling contest amongst schools in the program to see which school could achieve the highest recycling rates. 22 schools participated in the six-week long "Big Lift"– where schools once weekly weighed the recycling and trash from classrooms, offices, and the cafeteria. With an overall recycling rate of 54%, P.S. 154 in Queens was the grand prize winner! P.S. 154 increased their recycling rate by 268% and reduced the amount of trash by 46%. Other top winners include: P.S. 29 Brooklyn and the High School for Law and Public Service in Manhattan which improved recycling rates by 146% and 88% respectively. P.S. 25 Bronx had a 47% overall recycling rate – 20% for metal, plastic, and cartons.

As a result of their outstanding recycling rate, P.S. 154Q won a school greening package valued at $2,000! The prize included tree mulching, park benches made from recycled plastic and a new school garden. On June 25, students and faculty worked alongside staff from GrowNYC to construct the school garden and assist with tree mulching. For many students, it was their first experience with hands-on landscaping and gardening. Students filled the bed with top soil and planted a number of perennials and herbs that will attract butterflies. In addition to beautifying the school, the 8' x 3' raised bed constructed from recycled lumber, will serve as a valuable educational tool for students to learn about the natural environment.

GrowNYC and Brooklyn Brewery are excited to announce the launch of Greenmarket Wheat, a beer collaboration between local farmers, malters, and brewers that captures the flavor of regional agriculture in a bottle.  

Greenmarket Wheat is a wheat beer made with raw wheat from North Country Farm in Watertown, NY, Pilsner Barley Malt from Valley Malt in Hadley, MA, and Wildflower Honey from Tremblay Apiaries, Chemung County, NY. 

The idea for Greenmarket Wheat grew from New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2012 Farm Brewery License legislation aimed at expanding the growth of craft breweries and increase demand for locally grown products to brew beer statewide.

"Our Greenmarket Regional Grains Initiative works with regional farmers to devote more acreage to growing grains. Creating partnerships to move their product into the hands of bakers—and now brewers—has helped their businesses scale up production," said Marcel Van Ooyen, executive director of GrowNYC. "Greenmarket Wheat is a collaboration of local growers, millers, malters and brewers who will all benefit from the sale of this new product, not to mention consumers who can purchase a refreshing ale they can feel good supporting. Shoppers come to the Greenmarket to eat local. Now they can drink local. We couldn’t be more thrilled to work with Brooklyn Brewery and our producers to bring local grains into the spotlight."

Greenmarket Wheat will be available for sale by the bottle on Wednesdays and Saturdays at Union Square Greenmarket.

Did you know that GrowNYC's Greenmarket program had a weekly radio show?

Tune in each Thursday at 1:45 PM to Heritage Radio for the GrowNYC Market Update to hear profiles of our 50+ markets around the city-- including tips like which farmers have the first snap peas, historical and cultural sites near the farmstands and where to grab a special snack in the neighborhood.

Or catch up on past radio shows below!

4/4/13- McCarren Park/Greenpoint Greenmarket    

4/11/13- Dag Hammarskjold Plaza Greenmarket  

4/18/13- Brooklyn Borough Hall Greenmarket   

4/25/13- Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket

5/02/13- 82nd Street Greenmarket

5/09/13- Tribeca Greenmarket

5/15/13- Tucker Square Greenmarket

5/23/13- Windsor Terrace Greenmarket

5/30/13- Forest Hills Greenmarket

At GrowNYC’s Office of Recycling Outreach and Education, five stellar staffers are responsible for covering outreach activities throughout the five boroughs. For almost five years, Ermin Siljkovic has spent countless hours getting to know Manhattan’s communities and working to improve their recycling habits. Ermin took a few minutes between recycling presentations to answer a few questions about his job, and his personal quest for a more sustainable NYC.

What do you enjoy most about your job?
Interacting with so many people from all different walks of life and informing them of choices we have available to us, and which of those can have a positive impact on their lives. I guess I am sort of a good deed machine and this is essentially what drives me every day.

What is one of the most common public misconceptions about recycling in NYC?
That it is “too confusing” and “has changed so many times”. Both are untrue!

What is one golden rule you try to teach New Yorkers about recycling?
I encourage folks to stick to the basics by simply going by the tips we teach. There many things in life that we must learn in order to adapt to our roles at home or at work. Recycling is one of those things and thankfully, learning how to recycle at home is not very difficult. Unfortunately, we are not where we would like to be in regards to our diversion rate so I think a big part of our mission is to promote the simplicity of the DSNY curbside residential recycling program. If we can do that successfully I believe we will have then made great strides toward achieving our goal.

Did you recycle as a kid?
I grew up in an era in NYC when our trash burned right under our noses, and later, our family moved to a suburban area where recycling wasn’t implemented until I was practically on my way out to college. Other than occasionally recycling bottles at the supermarket, the short answer is “no”.

What got you interested in recycling?
The realization that I am accountable for my actions and that how I manage my waste plays a big role in this consideration.

What are some steps you have taken in your personal life to leave less of a footprint on the environment?
Aside from composting more of my food scraps (most recently with indoor Bokashi composting) or donating more of my unwanted personal items, I have been really big on growing at least some of my own food during the year and buying locally whenever I can. I am encouraged that this not only benefits the environment but helps build resilience in our communities.

Do you have a favorite story from the field?
Hard to pick just one. I know it sounds cliché but every day there is another new story. I always love finding “diamonds in the rough” which can be best described as individual people who want to recycle but just don’t know how or where to recycle or a property manager or building superintendent who has been looking for advice but just didn’t have access to a person who can explain it to them in way they could understand.

Thanks to a grant from the New York State Office of the Attorney General, GrowNYC has just finished installing 5 rainwater harvesting systems in the Bronx River Watershed. We partnered with Green Apple Corps and Sustainable South Bronx to make the project a success and to teach others how to build and install systems so that we can divert even more water. In total, we trained 30 residents to build and install RWH systems.

Five students from the Teen Action Program of The Point Community Development Corporation in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx monitored the 5 rainwater harvesting systems. They participated in a half-day workshop led by GrowNYC staff on water quality monitoring, where they learned how to use dissolved oxygen and pH testing equipment and the NYC water supply and the route it takes, including CSO. The monitoring strategy was to test oxygen and pH on a bi-weekly basis and compare and learn from results.

Based on our metrics, the following five systems are diverting approximately 64,430 gallons annually during growing season from storm sewers and the Bronx River.

River Garden (1086 East 180 Street): This garden is used by residents of the surrounding community and has approximately 30 members. Gardeners grow vegetables, flowers, herbs; tend to common plantings, compost, hold barbecues. We Installed a wing-type rainwater harvesting structure with integrated tool shed and a 300 gallon tank. The structure was built by Sustainable South Bronx under GrowNYC staff supervision.

Belmont Little Farmers (2485 Belmont Avenue): Installed a 500 gallon tank to divert rainwater from the adjacent building. The structure was built by Green Apple Corps under GrowNYC staff supervision.

Hispanos Unidos (2061 Honeywell Avenue): The roof of the garden casita was repaired to serve as the collection area associated with a 200 gallon rainwater collection tank. A downspout from an adjacent private home was also diverted into a 1,100 gallon rainwater collection tank.

Krystal Garden (2089 Vyse Avenue): A downspout was diverted from the adjacent multistory building into the garden and rain is collected in a 1,000 gallon rainwater collection tank. The project was installed by GrowNYC staff and community gardeners

Volky Flower Garden (859 Hornaday Avenue): The project involved re-framing, re-decking and re-shingling a casita/ shade structure roof, providing the collection area for 300 gallon and 250 gallon rain water collection tanks.

On Sunday, June 21st, GrowNYC and Fujifilm collaborated to present a two free Family Portrait Day events, one at the 77th Street Greenmarket and another at Miracle Garden in the Lower East Side, to celebrate Father's Day and the first day of summer.  

More than 400 local families turned out to receive free summer-themed family portraits from a professional photographer, sample food from the local Greenmarket, and participate in arts and crafts activities.

This was GrowNYC's third free Family Portrait Day event in the last year.  The event organizer, GrowNYC's Mike Rezny, called the event a huge success.