The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) has launched a year-long pilot for a new Circular Construction Hub at the MADE Bush Terminal complex in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. The initiative is designed to test how construction materials can be captured and reused within New York City rather than sent to landfills.
The Circular Construction Hub will be operated by Our Temenos, a Brooklyn-based ecological landscaping firm. According to NYCEDC, the hub’s core functions will include recovering, storing, sorting, and redistributing construction materials generated from projects around the city. By centralizing these activities at MADE Bush Terminal, the pilot aims to evaluate how effectively construction waste can be redirected back into the local building supply chain.
The program is specifically focused on extending the lifecycle of building materials and reducing the volume of usable components that are discarded. NYCEDC notes that the pilot will generate real-world data on the operational feasibility of reuse-oriented construction supply chains in New York City. That data is expected to help determine what types of infrastructure, logistics, and processes are needed to support material reuse at scale.
City leadership framed the effort as a response to current demolition and renovation practices. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani highlighted that when construction sites remove materials, much of it still ends up in landfills even when it remains usable. He said the pilot at MADE Bush Terminal is intended to change that pattern by recovering those materials, holding them at the hub, and then redirecting them back into use on other projects.
NYCEDC indicated that the findings from this year-long pilot will be used to shape future programmatic investments to advance circular construction practices across the city. The agency views the initiative as a way to support New York City’s climate objectives while also contributing to the continued expansion of the green economy.
For the industrial and construction ecosystem, the Circular Construction Hub at Sunset Park represents a test case for integrating reuse into day-to-day project delivery. As the program collects data on sourcing, handling, and redeploying salvaged materials, it may provide a framework for how contractors, suppliers, and other stakeholders can participate in and benefit from a more circular approach to building activity within New York City.
