Hi all...
Remember this front-page article from the Poughkeepsie Journal Oct. 18th?...
[key sentence below refers to how DCRRA wants "new property tax to support operations"(!)]
"No License? No Problem for Trash Haulers; County Enforcement Lax" by Mary Beth Pfeiffer
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20091018/NEWS01/91016009/Dutchess-trash-hauling-licensing-lax&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL
"The Journal's findings come at a critical juncture for the management of trash in Dutchess. A task force appointed by the Democrat-controlled county Legislature concluded recently that the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency was mismanaged and said its multi-million-dollar annual subsidy-- and possibly the trash agency itself-- should be eliminated.
The agency countered with its own report advocating a new property tax to support operations, an expanded burn plant, and most significantly, the adoption of a "flow control" law that would put the agency in charge of all 250,000 tons of waste produced in the county, in addition to the 150,000 tons processed at the burn plant."
Well, check out one more time this article from the front page of today's Poughkeepsie Journal...
"County Budget Seeks Change, Skimps on Details" by Jenny Lee-Adrian
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20091103/NEWS01/911030328/County-budget-seeks-change--skimps-on-details
"A continuing Poughkeepsie Journal investigation has found higher costs, heavy debt and no-bid contracts at the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency's waste-to-energy power plant. In a September report, consultants hired by the agency recommended upgrading the power plant and recycling facility. The consultants' report suggested instituting a 'green' fee on properties to pay for improvements in order to offset the annual net service fee. Higgins said if Steinhaus is looking at the 'green' tax, Steinhaus should announce it to the public."
[why are taxpayers of Dutchess forced to wait 'til after today (election day) to learn grimy details of this?]
[recall other Pok. Journal special reports: "Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency (pt.'s I, II, III)"
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/section/special&template=2col ]
Recall my past emails and blog posts on this; I remain more than a little concerned about the
recommendations from the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency's (Bill Calogero's) and Dutchess County Solid Waste Planning Commissioner's (Roger Akeley's) hand-picked consultant's report that came out last month from Germano & Cahill, P.C. & Gerhardt, LLC-- report entitled "Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency: Flow Control & Solid Waste Management Alternatives"...
In particular, page 12 of the report pushes strongly to expand and extend life of county incinerator(!):
"We recommend that the Agency undertake a diagnostic study of the [Resource Recovery (incinerator)] Facility to determine the scope and cost of major maintenance that will be required to extend the life of the Facility for an additional 25-30 years. This effort should be undertaken as soon as possible in order to allow the Agency to plan for future investment, and to prepare for a procurement process to select a new long-term operator for the Facility after 2014. The diagnostic study should include an evaluation of the feasibility and cost of upgrading or replacing the existing turbine generator to increase electric power production, and an evaluation of the feasibility of expanding the capacity of the Facility by adding a third boiler train. We estimate that if recycling capabilities in the County are enhanced, the total amount of remaining processable waste generated in the County may be reduced to approximately 215,000 tons per year, or 65,000 tons more than the Facility's current capacity, an amount that may be handled by the addition of a third boiler train."[!!!]
Specifically, on page 42 this same report calls for an "RRF Turbine Retro-fit for three million dollars"(!).
And-- just as important-- this same Germano/Cahill report commissioned by our county's RRA
also curiously suggests new "green fees" (property tax) to lower the skyrocketing cost of subsidies to our county's Resource Recovery Agency-- specifically, along the lines of in Montgomery County (MD):
"...we recommend that the annual County appropriation for payment of the Net Service Fee be replaced by a permanent volume-based Environmental Service Charge or Green Fee administered by the County to fund specific environmental costs and reserves. The new charge should be a user fee, assessed against real properties in proportion to the amount of solid waste generated at various land use classifications..."
[!]
Two zero-waste experts I spoke with ridiculed this suggestion; Institute for Local Self-Reliance President Neil Seldman (see http://www.ILSR.org ) educated me about something re: Montgomery County in Maryland that I was not aware of-- that (surprise, surprise) taxpayers and homeowners there have been and continue to be unfairly forced to pay through the nose to subsidize the wasteful cost of Covanta's incinerator there-- through the so-called "Environmental Service Charge" referred to above...
[N. Seldman pointed out to me that Montgomery now recycles about 40%; could recycle 60-70% easily.]
This is also interesting (the plot thickens, as they say)-- as Covanta (who has an incinerator in Montgomery County) just recently bought out our county's incinerator out from under being run by Montenay/Veolia, in spite of its atrocious track record re: environmental and labor law; see: http://www.nj.com/news/local/index.ssf/2009/09/union_county_incinerator_pays.html; Aug. 16th PoJo.
[scroll down just a bit for more details on horror show in Montgomery County/MD w/similar property tax]
Join 37 other Dutchess residents for zero-waste, folks-- at my http://www.petitiononline.com/zeroyes !...
Fact: More than two thirds of the materials we use are still burned or buried, despite fact we have technical capacity to cost-effectively recycle, reuse, or compost 90% of what we waste.
[see http://www.StopTrashingtheClimate.org ]
As the Institute of Local Self-Reliance has noted-- "On a per-ton basis, sorting and processing recyclables alone sustain 10 times more jobs than landfilling or incineration."
[see: http://www.ilsr.org/recycling/recyclingmeansbusiness.html ]
Recall-- "Dutchess Jobless Rate Hits 8.2 Percent" by Craig Wolf (Poughkeepsie Journal Oct. 15th)
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20091015/BUSINESS/91015021/1003/RSS02
And as always feel free to email all 25 of us for action on this: at countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us...
[pass it on!]
Joel
242-3571/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
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From Caroline Eader (carolineeader@msn.com)...(contact of Neil Seldman of http://www.ILSR.org )...
Subject: Montgomery County incinerator financial spreadsheets
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:19:05 +0000
"Here is the financial information, as prepared by NMWDA, about operating Montgomery County's incinerator and servicing the debt for the last 4 years (after subtracting all sources of revenue).
When reviewing this information, please remember Mont. Co. refinanced its bond in 2003, and therefore is currently servicing a debt of $184,450,000. (I believe the debt for the regional incinerator will be around $325M or higher.) The Mont. Co. incinerator is approx. 1800 TPD vs. the proposed regional incinerator for Frederick is to be 1500 TPD, and I understand Frederick would be responsible for 60% of the debt.
Here is a summary of the annual subsidy for its incinerator:
Total Annual Incinerator Fee for 2007:$38,226,444
Total Annual Incinerator Fee for 2006: $42,134,908
Total Annual Incinerator Fee for 2005: $41,609,353
Total Annual Incinerator Fee for 2004: $41,659,335
Here is a summary of the annual statement for 2007:
Debt service:
$29,690,025
Covanta Operating Charge:
$21,559,636
Passthrough charges:
$6,744,412
Revenue Credits to Covanta (for electricity and ferrous metals):
$1,634,399
NMWDA Fee:
$840,206
Subtotal Operating and Debt Service:$60,468,680
Revenues (electricity, ferrous, renewable energy credits):
$18,660,275
Volume refunds:
$276,356
Interest Earnings:
$1,644,000
DSFR Release (Debt Service Fund Release - a refund of monies paid in reserve):
$1,664,000
Total Credits: $22,242,236"
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Recall these five other great investigative exposé pieces from MB Pfeiffer over last several months:
Fact: "No Bid Deals Might Add to Agency's Financial Trouble" [Poughkeepsie Journal July 12th]
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090712/NEWS01/907120337
May 10th: "Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency: Inefficient, Expensive, and in Debt"
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090510/NEWS01/905100344&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL
May 31st: "Resource Recovery Agency: Padded Budgets or Solid Plans? County Subsidy Total is $5.4 Million More Than Needed Since '03"
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?Dato=20090531&Kategori=NEWS01&Lopenr=107060002&Ref=AR
July 12th: "Entity Failed to File Reports to the State"
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090712/NEWS01/907120336
July 16th" "Dutchess Burn Plant May Be Part of Sale"
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090716/NEWS01/907160322/1006
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Also-- last month's AkeleyDCRRA/Germano report admits on page 6 that, "We estimate that the total amount of waste generated annually in Dutchess County, exclusive of construction and demolition debris, but including recyclable materials, is approximately 250,000 tons. Of this amount, approximately 10,000 tons is currently recycled through processing at the Agency's Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in the Town of Poughkeepsie, including most, if not all of the recyclables collected by the cities, towns, and villages in the County. This represents only 4% of the total estimated waste stream."
[this is a confirmation of what Tom Baldino and I learned a month or so ago when we took a tour of Rockland County's Solid Waste Management Authority's facilities and a representative from Hudson Baylor told us that Dutchess County literally recycles LESS THAN A FIFTH (in weight) of what Rockland County recycles annually in cans, bottles, plastic, and paper-- though the counties' populations are practically identical; Rockland recycled 41,000 tons last year; Dutchess-- only 8,000 tons-- pathetic!]
Recall too-- in front of a packed house Sept. 23rd at Clinton Town Hall, I publicly challenged Dealy to join me the following day at noon-- to show us exactly where in the Green Ribbon Solid Waste Management Task Force report (released in Sept.) it is, that, as Dealy lied three times that night, supposedly (according to Dealy), report calls for shutting down our county Resource Recovery Agency!
[Yes, believe it or not, shockingly, Dealy actually lied three times about this-- fact is this is not in report]
Fact: THIS, specifically, is what the Green Ribbon Solid Waste Management Task Force report says:
"Based upon the points cited above, and in light of the extraordinarily high costs, inefficiency and mismanagement recently document at the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency, we recommend that the new PLAN (Dutchess County Local Solid Waste Management Plan) give careful and thorough consideration to the phasing out of the waste to energy facility over a 2-4 year time horizon and the phasing out or complete transformation for the Resource Recovery Agency over the same period of time."
FACT: GR. RIB. REPORT DOES NOT EXPLICITLY CALL FOR SHUTTING DOWN OUR COUNTY RRA!
[unfortunately there has already been some rather sloppy and careless reporting on this; should end!]
And-- note as well-- the same paragraph in this report continues as follows: "If the Agency is phased out, all efforts should be made to secure new County jobs for the administrative staff of the Agency. We believe that once waste reduction, recycling and composting has been maximized in Dutchess County the remaining balance of material which needs to be disposed of may well be best disposed of through out of county rail or truck transport to large in or out of state landfills. This option needs to be very thoroughly considered in the new PLAN from both an environmental and cost of service point of view."
The other lie Dealy stated at Sept. 23rd debate was about how supposedly this Green Ribbon Solid Waste Management Task Force report also calls for creation of 2 new landfills in Dutchess County. [?!?]
Again-- as with Dealy's other lie noted above-- I challenged Dealy at the Sept. 23rd debate to join me today (Thursday) at noon in front of our County Office Building-- to prove to us in the report where exactly the Green Ribbon report calls for creation of two new landfills (because it doesn't!)...
Click here for final report from Green Ribbon Task Force on Solid Waste Management I chaired:
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/assets/pdf/BK142669916.PDF .
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Fact: Our county incinerator doesn't even want food waste, as it's highly inefficient to burn (over 70% water; see http://www.Cool2012.com )-- and Dutchess taxpayers spent $1,167,271 on incineration in 2006, $5,005,364 last year on this, and are to spend $6,330,612 on this in 2009-- if status quo holds.
Recall the front-page article about Shabazz in the Poughkeepsie Journal last April 3rd (2008) on great food-waste composting operation in Poughkeepsie using materials from Vassar and Marist to produce extremely valuable compost in high demand at non-odor facility (Vassar Farm); see:
http://groups.google.com/group/planputnam/msg/bb0dd1fd8ca9441a ; http://greenwayny.com/beta/about/?id=bio ; http://www.recycle.net/trade/aa945288.html ;
http://www.grn.com/trade/aa945288.html ; http://nysawg.org/news.php?id=40 .
Fact: Ithaca, Portland, Seattle, Boulder, Cambridge, and communities across Vermont, North Carolina, Minnesota, Michigan, California have smartly moved towards zero waste with food-waste composting
[ http://www.cool2012.com/community/collection/ http://www.jgpress.com/archives/_free/000525.html ;
http://www.recycletompkins.org/editorstree/view/177 ; http://ccetompkins.org/compost/index.html ]
Fact: The Dutchess County Incinerator spews out over 3700 tons of carbon emissions annually.
[ http://www.CARMA.org ]
Fact: "Significantly decreasing waste disposed in incinerators and landfills will reduce greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent to closing 21% of U.S. coal-fired power plants. This is comparable to leading climate protection proposals such as improving national vehicle fuel efficiency. Indeed, preventing waste and expanding reuse, recycling, and composting are essential to put us on the path to climate stability." [ http://www.StopTrashingtheClimate.org ]
See http://www.350.org if you're not sure about how real threat of global warming/climate change is...
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Institute for Local Self-Reliance President Neil Seldman's crucial info here below:
Go to "Waste to Wealth" ILSR site for more-- http://www.ilsr.org/recycling/index.html .
Also-- check out these two gems ILSR President Neil Seldman recently penned for E Magazine:
"Wasted Energy: Debunking the Waste-to-Energy Scheme"
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?4315
"Recycling First: Directing Federal Stimulus Money to Real Green Projects"
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?4601&src=QHA290
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Recall http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2009/February09/20/recyc_selfrel-20Feb09.html ...
Self reliance expert promotes recycling, waste reduction over landfilling/burning
Feb. 20th-- POUGHKEEPSIE - The president of the non-profit Institute for Local Self Reliance told audiences in Poughkeepsie and Newburgh Thursday that the way to bring down the use of landfills is to expand recycling, waste reduction, building deconstruction and related fields. Neil Seldman of Washington, DC spoke to audiences at Vassar College and Newburgh Free Library and said federal stimulus money could help grow this technology, create new jobs and increase recycling. "We think if the federal government matches local spending with about $10-$20 billion, the transition from our current of recycling, which is 33-34 percent nationally can be increased to 75 percent within three to five years," he said. Seldman met with Dutchess legislators Joel Tyner, Barbara Jeter-Jackson and James Doxsey who agreed that if more jobs could be created and recycling increased, it would be a win-win for the economy and society.
Thanks again to Rhinebeck Village Boardmembers Barbara Kraft and Svend Beecher for comin' out to this forum above Feb. 20th-- and everyone else who turned out for Neil Seldman's Feb. 19th and 27th Poughkeepsie talks organized by yours truly with Vassar Sustainability Committee folks Lucy Johnson and Jeff Walker-- Rockland County Environmental Committee Chair Connie Coker, Jonathan Smith, Laurie Husted of Bard's Environmental Program, David Dell of Sustainable Hudson Valley, Manna Jo Greene of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Allison Morrill Chatrchyan of Cornell Cooperative Extension's Environmental Program, Patricia Zolnik of the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies, Michelle Leggett of the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency, Co. Leg. Jim Doxsey (and Co. Leg. Barbara Jeter-Jackson earlier), Dave Petrovits of Recycling Crushing Technology, Vassar Economics Professor Bill Lunt, environmentalists extraordinaire Marie Caruso, Nancy Swanson, and Tom Baldino, Richard Dennison, Fred and Alice Bunnell, and Cary Kittner, Vassar students Katherine Straus, Anna Weisberg, Nadine Souto, and Susan Unver, and Damon and Stephanie Lewis, Mary Schmalz, Margaret Slomin, Chris Wimmers, Patrick and Liz Noonan, Amanda Adams, Caitlin Zinsley, Peter Prunty, Chris Eufemia, Allie Chipkin, Jamie Roderick, Sarah Womer, Frank Haggerty, Frankie Mancini, et. al.
Also-- 'tis true-- I've actually gotten Northern Dutchess Hospital, the Baptist Home, and Fairgrounds all to make commitment to seriously consider food-waste composting as crucial step towards going fully zero-waste!...(see below-- re: forums I co-hosted July 29th and June 24th at Rhinebeck Town Hall with Shabazz Jackson and Josephine Papagni of Greenway Environmental Services).
[update: Meg Crawford made presentation from Shabazz happen @ Rhinebeck Town Board Oct. 26th;
contact Shabazz Jackson-- greenway777@aol.com or 656-6070 for much more info on this-- success
(because I organized 6/24 & 7/29 forums w/Shabazz, Meg C. inspired/empowered to go further)]
[also-- scroll down a bit for reprint of article on this in Northern Dutchess News from early July as well]
[recall below posted to my blog back on Aug. 4th; see:
http://dutchessdemocracyne.blogspot.com/2009/08/zero-waste-update-ndh-baptist-home-rcsd.html ]
Thanks tons to all who came out to my July 29th zero-waste/food-waste-composting follow-up mtg. at Rhinebeck Town Hall with presenters Shabazz Jackson/Josephine Papagni of Greenway Environmental Services-- attendees included William Marek (Baptist Home of Rhinebeck Administrator), Steve McKenna of Northern Dutchess Hospital (Health Quest Corporate Director of Hotel Services), Laurie Rich (Rhinebeck School Boardmember/County Faigrounds Green Initiative Coordinator), Jim Constantino (General Counsel for Royal Carting), Meg Crawford (Rhinebeck Conservation Advisory Council Chair), Brenda Cagle (R. Hook Conservation Advisory Council Chair)...
All were quite positive-- indeed, the prevailing mood was downright enthusiastic re: zero-waste here:
William Marek (Baptist Home of Rhinebeck Admin.): "We're very interested in food-waste composting."
Steve McKenna of Northern Dutchess Hospital (Health Quest Corporate Director of Hotel Services):
"This all seems so easy to me-- why couldn't we take our food waste to be composted; why would anyone not want to do this? I gather we could mimic at Northern Dutchess what the colleges have been doing on this. We're very interested in talking further about helping Rhinebeck become a pilot zero-waste community-- right here we have the right environment philosophically and culturally; we have the interest; we have the philosophical commitment." [note-- since then, McKenna still positive!]
Jim Constantino (General Counsel for Royal Carting) tonight: "This is about leadership-- setting a standard-- let's do something; let's look at some possibilities. This works." [speaking re: food-waste composting example modeled by Shabazz and Josephine at Vassar Farms in Poughkeepsie-- taking food waste from Vassar, Marist, and SUNY-New Paltz, mixing it with yard waste, and making compost]
Laurie Rich (Rhinebeck School Boardmember/County Faigrounds Green Initiative Coordinator): "I'm going to take this back to our school board and the Dutchess County Agricultural Society; this is good."
Thanx much again to Barbara Kraft (Village Boardmember) for here efforts on this issue too this year...
Josephine Papagni (Greenway Environmental Services): "There's grant money out there for this."
Shabazz Jackson (Greenway Environmental Services Cofounder): "We'd definitely like to explore possibilities with the town of a host community benefit agreement/lease/and-or-purchase agreement for parcel of land at the old landfill [on Stone Church Rd. next to transfer station] to operate a food-waste/yard-waste composting operation. This place has everything we need-- already a transfer station system is here and functioning-- the wood dump at the old landfill is the perfect location and geology with shale bedrock there. For example, one possible option is this-- in two weeks we could get that spot to receive food waste and more yard waste materials to be processed there for six months, and collect all sorts of data on participation, routes, amounts, etc., etc. Rhinebeck has the right population, infrastructure, and logistics-- this place is perfect for a zero-waste demonstration project with food-waste composting. Right now the local food waste is hauled down to Poughkeepsie with the rest of the municipal solid waste-- if the food waste is handled locally, it makes the system cost-effective [recall-- 425% increase over last three years in county subsidy from local taxpayers at our county's Resource Recovery Agency to handle waste brought there-- and don't forget-- food waste is 90% water; the folks at our county incinerator don't even want it brought there]. It's good and important that Joel brought representatives from some of Rhinebeck's largest institutions here tonight-- there's never enough residential food waste to make a food-waste composting system work without large institutions to make it viable-- commercial businesses are a necessary core, and the residential food waste stream can follow and ride along. We can design a system and go for grants, then demonstrate that this type of a pilot zero-waste food-waste composting operation can work here." [in northern Dutchess County just the same way Shabazz and Josephine have been proving this a half-hour south of here in Poughkeepsie]
[Shabazz' and Josephine's PowerPoint focused on how important real community-based social training (a proven effective method to deliver sustainable behavior) is to make zero-waste work-- putting the system in the people by connecting people to local end-product.]
[recall-- Shabazz was recognized in 1992 by the NYS Council of Mayors with an Innovations in Local Government Award-- for getting the City of Beacon up to a verified 72% recycling rate w/transfer station:
http://greenwayny.com/beta/about/?id=bio ; http://www.cbsm.com/public/mma/advanced+training.html ]
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>From p. 6 of Northern Dutchess News (came out first week of July):
"Food Waste Composting Elicits Discussion in Rhinebeck"
by Greg Lucid
At a meeting held the evening of June 24 at Rhinebeck Town Hall, a presentation was given to 12 local citizens by Greenway Environmental Services on ways to protect the climate by food waste composting, also known as a zero-waste approach.
County Legislator Joel Tyner, D-Rhinebeck-Clinton, originally publicized the meeting as a taxpayers' forum to discuss ways the county could save tax dollars. One of the proposed initiatives, included on a press release distributed by Tyner prior to the meeting, was a zero-waste approach to resource recovery, which the legislator suggested could save millions of tax dollars.
While Tyner touched on some of the other ways the county could save money, most of the meeting was devoted to learning about composting from Greenway officials Shabazz Jackson and Josephine Papagni. A discussion followed a video and PowerPoint presentation on the work Greenway does locally.
Answers.com defines compost as "a mixture of decaying organic matter, as from leaves and manure, used to improve soil structure and provide nutrients." Notably compost can also contain certain foods. Composting most people are familiar with on a smaller scale is typically done in gardens.
According to reports, everything in Dutchess County that is not recycled is incinerated. [note-- this is false-- as tens of thousands of tons of our county's municipal solid waste are driven annually many miles upstate to landfills there] Food waste requires a lot of energy to incinerate because it is 95 percent water. [note-- a more accurate statement here would be that food waste is over 70 percent water] Each ton of food waste recovered saves two tons of carbon dioxide.
Jackson and Papagni know first-hand about getting their hands dirty by composting and educating communities on zero-waste, better alternatives they believe for protecting the environment.
"We process tens of thousands of tons of organic waste [each year]," Jackson said. Greenway, based in Newburgh, is one of the largest producers of organic topsoils and mulches, he said.
Jackson underscored Greenway's community involvement.
"We work with the students (including local high school students). And we donate 10 percent of our time to environmental education activities," he said, also noting a partnership Greenway has established "formally" for the past seven years with Vassar College. Vassar students are involved with Greenway through work-study and senior projects. Greenway also works with Marist College and SUNY New Paltz student volunteers. Marist has been active with Greenway since 2007, while New Paltz has just started working with Greenway this year, he added.
Hopewell Junction-based Royal Carting Service Co. has been servicing Greenway projects for more than 30 years, Jackson said. That relationship helped Royal make the investment into food waste, he added. Jackson noted one service Royal provides is shipment of selected waste materials to Greenway from across the Hudson Valley region.
Greenway's Solution to Pollution
For the past few years, citizens in Rhinebeck have been exchanging ideas with one another on better resource management.
"One of the things that has happened in the past two, two-and-a-half years: For the first time, the village, town, Rhinebeck Central School District and the fairgrounds have developed a cooperative initiative...it's the first time these entities have discussed how to all work together to better use our resources to share with one another," said Laurie A. Rich, coordinator of the Dutchess County Fairgrounds Green Initiative. Rich, one of 12 individuals at the meeting, is a member of the Rhinebeck Central School District Board of Education.
Some believe Dutchess County Fairgrounds could even serve as an ideal site for a food waste compost pilot project.
Papagni said Rhinebeck is an ideal location to work in because it contains an existing organic waste dump. "With a little bit of remediation work," she said, "You could have a very efficient system that could serve the whole community."
Tyner also plans on reaching out to the Town of Clinton for participation.
So where does Greenway go from here?
"We want to set up at the Beacon Transfer Station to do training, put together places where people will work," Jackson said. He noted that to get the process up and running, from obtaining local and state permits to having a site plan done among other tasks, it could take about a year before moving forward with waste collection and composting at new sites.
Meanwhile at the government level, the county is following Greenway's lead.
"In March, a resolution was passed [unanimously] by the County Legislature to try to draw down federal stimulus funds to move toward zero waste," Tyner said.
Tyner, the chairman of the County Legislature's Environment Committee, said he has introduced ways to save money and protect the environment. He said he attended a zero-waste conference held in Albany last November, at which time he decided to seriously take action toward zero waste.
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