A
few more items regarding solid waste. This topic, or variations on
it, will no doubt come up in debates or in conversations as you're
campaigning. Most folks are aware of the recyclable cost crisis, and
are concerned that it, as opposed to a lot of other 'crucial' issues,
will have an observable effect on them.
- Glass: Glass is the heaviest component of our recyclable stream, and re-directing it would make a big difference. Andela, In Richfield Springs, will apparently take all the glass we bring them, and Karen Sullivan has been talking with Ommegang and other big glass recyclers about getting their glass to Andela. This is ongoing; transportation on a regular basis is an issue.
- Cardboard: There will soon be a separate bin at the Transfer Stations for cardboard. A market has been found, at least for the time being.
- Mattresses (and box springs) – For the last few years, we have been charging $25/mattress (or box spring) at the TS s and storing them in a trailer. When the trailer is full, a company called Triad, from the Buffalo area, comes and takes it away, and charges us a fee. They take the matt/bs apart and recycle everything. We generally break even financially. There has been some talk, and a little investigation, about establishing a recycling center here in Oneonta, perhaps run by ARC Otsego.
- Speaking of ARC Otsego, they are running one of the great places in Oneonta – the Reuse Center, on the corner of Duane and West Broadway, just off River St. They have two warehouses, and they take anything that's reasonably usable, price it and sell it. It's like the world's biggest tag sale, and it's keeping tons of stuff out of the landfills. Everything from big jars of small screws to all the student desks from SUCO's recent remodeling.
- Syrofoam – and speaking of the Reuse Center, they also have a styrofoam densifier, which takes clean white styrofoam and compresses it into standard sized blocks that styrofoam manufacturers will buy. Karen Sullivan helped with the grant that enabled ARC Otsego to buy the densifier.
- Electronics – NYS used to provide a grant that paid for half of County expense for processing electronics, which have their own regulated waste stream. That grant has gone away, and prices are going up. We contract with a company that will – for that increasing price – take electronic materials and process them appropriately. Just a month or so ago, SWEC voted to charge $12 for each TV or monitor (we still get a startling high number of CRT monitors).
- Ag plastic – You may have seen those big hay bales out in the fields, wrapped in white plastic, or the very long white plastic cylinders used to store ground silage. It's single use plastic, and in the spring there are tons of it each year. Often it is buried or burned, both illegal. Soil and Water has a machine that compresses this stuff into large blocks, and we have had about a half-dozen one-day events where farmers can bring the plastic in for free. However, the market for these compressed plastic blocks, never robust, has dried up.
So
there are – and have been – some significant initiatives focused
on keeping materials out of the waste stream and recycling them
responsibly. This is important not only because of the suddenly-high
recycling costs, but because there is a finite amount of space in
existing NYS landfills, and no one is optimistic about the State
approving any more in the near future.
Much
– perhaps most – of this work has been done by Karen Sullivan and
her excellent Planning and Solid Waste Department team. Since the
end of MOSA, we have also had Casella as a collaborative partner, as
well. I'd be the first to cast suspicions on the motives of a
corporation, but Casella's goals are aligned with ours and we've
solved a lot of problems together.
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