The Roosevelt Island Saturday Farmers Market at Motorgate Plaza under the
Helix 

returns tomorrow, January 8, after a two week hiatus for Christmas and New
Year’s Day.

The Roosevelt Island Saturday Farmers Market is open early morning to mid
afternoon in good weather and bad 

offering a wide variety of healthy and delicious tasting fruits, vegetables
and much more.   

Also, the Roosevelt Island
Big Reuse Food Scrap drop off site
with
Haki Compost Collective
volunteers 

returns to Saturdays at the Motorgate Plaza next to the Farmers Market tomorrow.

According to Haki Compost:

Our Big Reuse Food Scrap Drop-Off program has collected 60,000 pounds of
scraps in 2021 that has been diverted from landfills and processed into
compost to amend neighborhood soils, and over 215,000 pounds since the program
started in November 2015. 

 In the last collection holiday weekend of 2021 alone, we collected 599
pounds from 99 residents serving approximately 50% of our participants. Woot
woot! And, we’re back on Saturdays from 9 AM – 2 PM! 

What’s more, throughout January 2022, residents can drop their used pens and
markers for proper disposal during Haki Compost hours in a collection
partnership with TerraCycle and iDig2Learn (no pencils, please).

Also, To properly dispose of Christmas trees from Roosevelt Island, the only
way to do that is to take the trees off island and to drop them at the Parks
Department location with
Mulchfest NYC Parks. One site that is very close is the Queensbridge Park on Vernon Blvd (just
before arriving at the Qboro bridge) anytime during park hours through January
9th when they will be chipped for mulch. Astoria Park is also hosting two
chipping days this coming weekend on both Saturday and Sunday January 8th and
January 9th.  

In the past two years, volunteers from RIGC and Haki helped to take about
30-40 RI trees to Mulchfest, but we were unable to make any big effort this
year in 2022. That being said, RIGC/Haki volunteers can transport RI trees to
Vernon tomorrow only Saturday January 8th for anyone who wants to bring their
tree clean of any trimmings to the Haki Food Scrap Drop Off between 9 and 2
tomorrow. One car will make trips off Island with any trees brought to Haki
tomorrow.  

Any Roosevelt Islanders interested in requesting that RIOC make a shift to
more sustainable chipping of trees or to a link with NYC Parks Mulchfest in
2023 can email
[email protected]. Now is the time to begin to petition and plan for years ahead 2023 and
beyond. We can join together and write a letter about this positive change for
2023.