Written in June 2024
Zero Waste Warren County, NY, a grassroots activist organization, has been the catalyst for a new approach to recycling in this rural county located at the gateway to the New York State’s Adirondack Region. The county has a population of 65,000 people settled in towns ranging from 500 to 35,000 residents. A County law requires every town to have its own transfer station where residents can bring their garbage and recyclables.
A few years ago, the towns in the County were paying over $200 per ton to recycle the materials collected at their transfer stations, including the cost of trucking them to processing facilities in Albany 60 miles away. The County’s procurement office approved a local paper broker to charge towns only $125 per ton to recycle their old corrugated cardboard (OCC) when the value of OCC hit $150 per ton.
Zero Waste Warren County then proposed that each of the town transfer stations send source separated materials, dropped off by residents to a County aggregation facility to be constructed at one of the county’s largest transfer stations in the town of Queensbury. From this aggregation point, processors and end use manufacturers would pick up the materials. The towns and the County would earn revenue from these companies for their well-sorted and baled materials.
This new recycling infrastructure would represent a fresh start for recycling in Warren County.
From the proposed County aggregation facility, paper mills, plastic, glass and e scrap processing plants would send tractor-trailers to pick up the baled and consolidated materials for recycling.
Although data from the towns is not available from many of the County’s transfer stations, Zero Waste Warren County estimates that the local governments in the County would save up to $200,000 annually from the new system. The data from the towns is required by law to be reported annually to the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
Zero Waste Warren County traveled to the small town of North Elba, NY in the Adirondack Park to see a similar source separation recycling system operated by the town’s Public Works Department. North Elba bales and aggregates all the recyclables brought to the transfer station, and despite its distance from a four-lane road, have succeeded in getting all its recyclables picked up and paid for by recycling mills.
In the summer of 2023 the Warren County Board of Supervisors applied to the US EPA for $1.5 million to build the infrastructure to bale and aggregate the recyclables collected at town transfer stations in the County. The County did not get the EPA grant.
Zero Waste Warren County then initiated discussions between Replenyish, a new company that brokers recycled materials and provides equipment to meet the demand for secondary materials by major product corporations, and the Warren County Public Works Committee of the Board of Supervisors. The County is now preparing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for recycling brokering services including data from County transfer stations to inform prospective responding companies. A working group that will include the County Public Works Superintendent will develop the RFP.
These developments in rural recycling are noteworthy as an example of how grassroots organizations can impact local decision-making to help reduce costs and increase local revenue.
“Our ultimate goal,” said Tracy Frisch of Zero Waste Warren County member, “is to show how cost-effective recycling, composting, and reuse can be as it also creates good jobs in the county. As Zero Waste policies, programs and enterprises are implemented throughout the region, we can eliminate garbage incineration, which is the most polluting and most costly way to manage waste there is.
Washington County, NY, just to the south of Warren County, has a 500-ton-per-day 32-year-old trash incinerator. The two counties built the incinerator at great cost to area residents, despite vigorous citizen opposition. Then the two counties sold off the incinerator to Wheelabrator/Waste Management in 2012.
Warren County signed a 20-year ‘put or pay’ contract requiring them to deliver a minimum amount of waste to the Washington County incinerator located in Hudson Falls, NY. However, that contract does allow for Warren County to reduce its minimum amount of waste due to increased recycling.
Neil Seldman is an advisor to Zero Waste Warren County through the Recycling Cornucopia Program of Zero Waste USA. Seldman is a nationally known campaigner for Zero Waste. He co-founded the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, National Recycling Coalition, Zero Waste USA and Zero Waste International Alliance. He is a former manufacturer (B.H. Kreuger, Brooklyn, NY) and university professor of political science (The George Washington University).