After nearly 20 years of mining the urban waste stream and bringing jobs to the inner city, this much-touted nonprofit, known as Bronx 2000, is out of business. The problem was Big City Forest, the LDC s for-profit subsidiary. Big City Forest had a popular product, an engaging social mission and environmental cachet. But like many small businesses, it stumbled when it made an ambitious leap to expand. For two years, staff pitched presentations to interested outside investors, but no one was willing to sign on.
Insiders disagree on what was missing.
Now observers are left wondering when or if anyone else will carry on what many say was a model economic development project. The concept is brilliant and meets a legitimate need, says Eric Goldstein, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. I expect it will be reinvented and be a success. It was a little ahead of its time. From the Trash Wood salvage is only the latest in a long line of Bronx 2000 projects that redefined what could be recycled.