MONTICELLO, NY — What will the next ten years of waste management in Sullivan County look like?

A newly published, 470-page shelf-bender presents a picture—or, rather, a range of possibilities. Residents will get to hear more about it at a public meeting scheduled for noon on Thursday, September 19, at the county government center in Monticello (see sidebar).

The final draft of the Sullivan County Local Solid Waste Management Plan covers a lot of ground, from the practical to the technical to the whimsical. You’ll find cheerful suggestions for reducing food waste in families with children (Give fruits and vegetables cool names like “Xray Vision Carrots” and “Super Strength Spinach”), along with technical formulae like “GHG reduction = ~ 1,747.2 MTCO2e” in a discussion of how the solar and wind energy sources powering county buildings have reduced greenhouse gases (by 1,747.2 metric tons in 13 years).

It’s been 30 years since the county last drew up a waste management plan. A lot has changed since then. There are more categories of waste now—solid waste, recyclables, biosolids (the byproduct of sewage treatment), compost, electronics, household hazardous waste, paint, scrap metal, tires, textiles, and non-hazardous industrial waste. All are represented.

Every transfer station, scrapyard, and landfill is accounted for, as is the business end of waste management—from the revenue earned from disposal fees and the sale of recyclables, to the recent loss of property tax support. “Typically, long-term debt to fund facility projects is acquired through issuance of municipal bonds,” the draft plan states. “In prior years some of the program funding came through a local property tax levy. However, as of 2023, this tax will no longer be collected.”

The Local Environmental Justice section requires “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.”

The county’s sustainability initiatives include maximizing the efficiency of its fleet, renewable energy projects, an EV infrastructure reimbursement program, a climate action plan, and a composting program that started in 2023.

Burning waste, counting recyclables

The draft plan extensively covers thermal waste treatments, one of which is currently under serious consideration by the county manager and legislature. These processes typically use very high heat to reduce carbon-rich waste either to bricks that can be buried in a landfill, or to gases that can be used for fuel (gasification). Pyrolysis converts plastic into synthetic crude oil “using heat, motion, and careful reactions,” which, the final draft states, “has the potential to divert plastics destined for the landfill [and] displace virgin fossil fuel production.”

Recyclables are identified as one of the county’s biggest challenges, stemming from the difficulty in compacting loads, double handling, fluctuating market prices, and not understanding how much of it ends up in other counties.

Textiles—clothing, carpet, towels, sheets, and draperies—make up about 5 percent of Sullivan County’s waste stream. The draft plan calls textile manufacturers “among the top contributors to CO2 emissions” and says the NYS Department of Conservation found that 1.4 billion pounds of textiles are disposed of in the state each year. The plan includes suggestions for donating and otherwise recycling clothing. Some transfer stations, like Highland in Eldred and Western Sullivan in Cochecton, transport textiles to Textile Recovery Services in East Bohemia, NY.

Sullivan County has retained Cornerstone Engineering and Geology to develop the plan, which lawmakers will use to evaluate waste-handling practices. 

As to why the county hasn’t created a solid waste management plan since 1991? The plan blames “various changes in management strategies, staff turnover within the county, a major shift in waste and recycling paradigms, and evolution of solid waste management regulations over the last 30 plus year, there was no consistent follow through with the previous plan to meet timeframes in the implementation schedule.”

Breakdown of Sullivan’s waste

Paper—31 percent

Organics—18 percent

Plastics—14 percent

Miscellaneous—14 percent

Metal—9 percent

Textiles—5 percent

Wood—5 percent

Glass—4 percent