Judith Enck provides opening remarks
“We need systemic change”
Rebecca Martin, KingstonCitizens.org
“There is no “away” in throwaway”
Greenway Environmental Services (Shabazz Jackson and Josephine Papagni)
“We must study the New Paltz model and other Ulster County transfer stations to guide the Zero Waste Implementation Plan. By upgrading the remaining 18 transfer stations to each process 5,000 tons of organics per year, Ulster County could divert up to 95,000 tons of food and yard waste annually from the waste stream—at a fraction of the cost of a $100M+ “put or pay” anaerobic digester project currently being considered by Ulster County and UCRRA.”
Neil Seldman, Zero Waste USA
“When you separate materials, you create jobs, support small businesses and expand the tax base.”
Sustainable Sullivan (Eric Feinblatt and Rebekah Creshkoff)
“With a “put or pay” incinerator (Covanta) project in Sullivan County, we would be obliged to provide up to 1 million tons of garbage per year. Sullivan County produces 100,000 tons per year. We have flow control, but no one enforcing flow control, and at the moment, 20% of that is going to Pennsylvania. So what remains is 80,000 tons per year. So what we would have to do is bring in trash from Ulster County and other counties. Ulster County, in its proposed “put or pay” plan, does not have enough waste to supply the anaerobic digester, so it has suggested bringing in trash from Sullivan County. The whole thing is a cluster ^%*(. It’s like Abbott and Costello. The left doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.”
Mothers Out Front Dutchess County (Sandra Stratton-Gonzalez)
“It is really disheartening to hear all the plans afoot in Sullivan and Ulster Counties regarding Incineration (Sullivan) and Anerobic Digestion (Ulster)…these facilities continue to keep us on the path of disposal rather than the path of recovery. They lock us into decades of disposal culture because of the “put or pay” agreements. We are currently in a position where we’re fighting to change practices in Dutchess County and understand how we are impacting our neighboring counties practices…”
Now is the time to get involved and take action
Call your Ulster County Legislator in support a properly funded Zero Waste Implementation Plan (ZWIP) that creates a model for Zero Waste that can be replicated across all remaining 18 transfer stations in Ulster County.