Zero Waste

What If We Stopped Treating Food Waste Like Garbage? A conversation with Shabazz Jackson

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Photo credit: Michael Isabell

By Rebecca Martin

There is something magical about watching food waste become soil.

I would know, because I’ve been doing it in my own backyard this summer—with a little help from Shabazz Jackson and Josephine Papagni of Greenway Environmental Services.

One principle Shabazz and Josephine shared with me: waste should be managed as close to where it is generated as possible. And what could be closer than our own backyards?

In just a couple of months, I’ve been turning about 20 pounds a week of household organic material into compost—all in my little Earth Machine composter that they provided for me. At that rate, my backyard will process more than 1,000 pounds, or roughly half a ton, of organic material in a year.

Think about that. Half a ton of material getting a second life right here at home—not hauled away, buried or burned, but turned into healthy soil that helps create beautiful gardens.

And I’m not just breaking down vegetable scraps and other organics, but meat and oils, too—something I never thought would be possible in my little home composting system. No maggots. No flies. Just red wigglers. My compost has become such a rich, healthy ecosystem that the jumping worms can’t tolerate it. 

And my backyard isn’t unusual. Roughly two-thirds of Ulster County’s housing units are single-family, detached homes—that’s tens of thousands of households with outdoor space. If more of those households composted even 20 pounds of food waste a week, as I do, we could keep thousands of tons of organic material out of the waste stream every year. 

I remove at least 20lbs of organics from my kitchen every week.

In Kingston, the backyard composter doesn’t have to stand alone. The City’s community composting program gives residents a way to keep the practice going year-round—when backyard composters freeze in the winter, residents can bring their food waste to the community system instead.

That’s the power of thinking about organic waste differently. We don’t need one giant solution—we need a network of local solutions working together: backyards, community composting programs and transfer stations. And Greenway has figured out how to make one of the smallest pieces of that system—the backyard composter—remarkably efficient.

That’s what makes Greenway’s invention so exciting. They’ve taken the natural process of decomposition and figured out how to make it work quickly and cleanly in an urban backyard—even with meat and oils. What once seemed like “waste” can become a resource right where it is generated. And that’s something I want everyone who reads KingstonCitizens.org to know: you can do this, too.

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Who are you, and how long have you been doing this work?

Shabazz Jackson: Greenway Environmental Services is a regional organics recovery and soil company. We collect and process food scraps, leaves, brush, logs, pallets, and other organic materials and transform them into compost, mulch, topsoil, and specialty soil blends rather than sending them to the landfill. Our philosophy is to recover the organic fraction of the waste stream and return that fertility to the soil, while helping protect groundwater and surface water. We also design zero-waste systems and work with colleges, municipalities, businesses, and other institutions to develop and manage food-waste programs.  We’ve been doing this work for more than 50 years. I’m an inventor, but what we invent are natural systems. The challenge is to take a process that nature designed to happen slowly and redesign it so that it works efficiently in an urban environment. We’re essentially learning from nature and figuring out how to make those systems work at the scale and speed that our communities need.

How do you do that?

SJ:  In nature, organic material breaks down slowly and feeds small organisms that depend on it. That’s a good system for a forest, but in a city or neighborhood, we don’t want food waste sitting around, attracting maggots and flies and creating odors. We work with nature, not against it—to take the biological process nature designed and adapt it to the way we live. And we’ve succeeded at doing that.

What exactly have you invented?

SJ: The key is to engage during the decomposition process. We’re imitating the human digestion system. It’s a form of biomimicry. We give it the right biology and the right environment to decompose efficiently from the start.

We start with a rapid decomposition medium that goes into the Earth Machine, like the one you have, along with the food waste. We make it by mixing actively decomposing food-waste compost with wood chips from the local tree-service industry. When a tree is removed, the tree service grinds it into chips, and we use some of those locally sourced chips in our medium.

The medium introduces an active biological process right from the beginning. Instead of letting food waste sit around and begin to rot, we’re creating the conditions for it to break down quickly and aerobically. That’s the key.

The “medium” at the bottom of my composter is now what I use to place on top of my weekly collection. It’s rich with red wigglers.

The second component is our odor-control blend, which is what you call the “lasagna.” Every time you add food waste to your kitchen container, you simply sprinkle a handful of the blend over it. It’s a biological filter that absorbs the sulfur generated when food rots.  The odor control blend is a mix of completely cured and finely screened food waste compost and wood shavings which is effective in controlling moisture.  At present, we are field testing the materials in preparation for household distribution.  It’s available in bulk at our community composters in New Paltz and Poughkeepsie.  We make the blend at our facility using clean wood shavings collected from a modern wood shop. The shavings are a clean byproduct of that process. We mix the kiln-dried wood shavings with fully decomposed and cured food-waste compost that has been finely screened. The blend inoculates the food with the bacteria needed right at the beginning of the process. That’s what makes it work.

So the goal at the start is to stop food from rotting?

SJ: Yes. The goal is to help it decompose in the right way from the start when it matters. 

Why is the beginning of the process so important?

SJ: Because that’s where you establish the biological environment. We’ve inherited a culture that treats food as garbage as soon as we’re finished with it. Think about what happens in a typical household. Once a week, you take out a load of rotting food. Maybe you’ve separated it from the rest of your garbage and put it in a container provided by the municipality. But you’re still carrying over the culture of disposal. And the problem is that rotting food is inherently difficult to manage that way. It’s wet. It attracts flies and maggots. It smells. We’re trying to make a cultural transition—a cultural upgrade. At the base of that transition is the idea that we should stop having rotting food sitting around our kitchens. Instead, we need to separate this material and give it the biological conditions it needs from the very beginning.

Greenway’s “Odor Control Blend” is the magic sauce! I get 2-3 buckets a month that keeps me in the clear.

And some of the materials you’re using are themselves made from waste?

SJ:  Yes. That’s one of the reasons we can keep the cost so low. We’ve figured out how to take commercial waste and turn it into a resource.

How do you work with local businesses while keeping their food waste as close to its source as possible?

SJ: We want to encourage food waste to go to the closest appropriate local facility. For example, we have a contract with Adams Fairacre Farms, and we also work with the Culinary Institute of America. Both generate food waste locally. Adams has a store in Kingston, and the CIA is in Hyde Park, close to UCRRA. So, in keeping with our principle of managing waste as close to its source as possible, it doesn’t make sense to haul that material all the way to New Paltz when UCRRA is right there. We send their food waste to UCRRA.

So you don’t believe that everything needs to go to one centralized facility?

SJ:  No. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for removing organics from the waste stream. We need to start thinking differently. We’re looking at each waste stream and asking what makes the most sense locally.

How does compost connect to food systems?

SJ: In nature, soil and food are part of the same cycle. Plants take nutrients from the soil, and organic material eventually returns those nutrients to the soil. If we’re designing a sustainable food system, we should be doing the same thing. The composter and the garden shouldn’t be separate—they should be part of one system. You might bring in materials at the beginning to establish a garden. That’s a one-time contribution of material we’ve recovered from commercial sources. After that, the food waste generated in the surrounding community can be broken down and returned to the soil, helping maintain the fertility of the garden. The food feeds the soil, and the soil helps grow more food. That’s how nature works.

After breaking up my food scraps, I add about a 1/2 inch of medium from the bottom of my composter

Haven’t we already built a decentralized waste system?

SJ: In many ways, we have. Ulster County’s goal is to recover 90 percent of the waste stream by 2050. And the county has already invested in a decentralized system to help get there. UCRRA is the hub, and the 19 transfer stations are the spokes. That’s a significant investment in infrastructure that is already spread throughout the county. So I don’t think the question is whether we should have a decentralized system. We’ve already made that choice. Now we need to develop it. The question is: How do we use the system we’ve already built to recover 90 percent of our waste? That means looking at what each transfer station can do, how we can remove organics from the waste stream, and how we can connect the different pieces.

What does this have to do with the future of Ulster County’s waste system?

SJ: Everything. I think we need to stop pursuing projects like Global NRG and decide what kind of system we actually want to build. There is only one pool of money. UCRRA already has access to roughly $60 million in bonding—enough to invest significantly in a more decentralized system. I’m currently serving on the UCRRA Zero Waste Committee, and I think our first job should be to decide is if we want a centralized system, or do we want to develop the decentralized system we already have?

Why is removing organics from the waste stream so important?

SJ: Because you can’t get to zero waste without removing organics from the waste stream. Food waste is one of the largest parts of what we’re throwing away, and it doesn’t belong in a landfill or an incinerator. It belongs back in the biological cycle. There isn’t one solution that will work everywhere. We need to look at what we’re generating, where we’re generating it, and what infrastructure we already have. And we have to pay attention to our largest industries.

Tourism is a major part of Ulster County’s economy, and tourism generates a tremendous amount of food waste. We can’t seriously talk about zero waste without figuring out how to keep that material out of the disposal stream.

New Paltz gives us an opportunity to demonstrate what this could look like. The Village has a significant tourism economy and a concentration of restaurants and other food-related businesses generating commercial food waste. The Town already has infrastructure at its transfer station. Why not put those pieces together and make New Paltz a model?

The transfer station could take the food waste generated by the Village’s tourism economy, and we could measure what happens when we actually capture that material—how much is diverted, how clean the stream is, what it costs, and how much compost and soil we can produce from it. That would give us a real-world demonstration that could be replicated in other communities across Ulster County.

I always water my compost after adding to it, so that it’s damp (not wet). Moisture is required to break organic material down efficiently.

What do you think Greenway’s role is in this transition?

SJ: Greenway has the solution. Our society has the problem. We’ve been preparing for the day when people finally say, “Okay, Shabazz. We’ve heard enough.” When that day comes, we’re ready. In fact, we’re ready now.

Our role was to invent natural systems and figure out how to make them work in the places where people live. Nature has already designed a system for breaking down organic material. Flies, mealworms, bacteria and other organisms do that work naturally. But when we live in an urban environment, we need to manage that same material differently. Our challenge is to create the conditions for it to break down without the flies and the odor.

And that’s where people come in. Maybe you have a small piece of property. Maybe you’ve invested thousands of dollars and countless hours into your backyard garden. You’re already investing in the food you’re growing. Why not take the organic material you’re already generating and turn it back into the soil that makes your garden more productive?

That’s what Greenway is here to do: take what nature designed, adapt it to our urban environment, and use it to meet people’s needs.  We don’t need to start from scratch. We need to connect the pieces we already have—and build a system that keeps organic material close to where it is generated, puts it back into the soil, and move Ulster County toward its goal of recovering 90 percent of its waste by 2050.

If you’re interested in Greenway’s backyard composting program and other services, contact Shabazz and Josephine at: gr*********@*ol.com

 

Voila! It’s ready to work its magic.

 

A Critical Window of Opportunity for Ulster County Zero Waste Planning

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This is the latest in our ongoing series  following efforts to move Ulster Toward Zero Waste.  The images above are examples of Zero Waste Implementation Plans, and can all be found for review at: https://energyjustice.net/zerowaste/

 

By Rebecca Martin

There is an important and encouraging development in Ulster County’s zero waste planning: community members now have a seat at the table—at least for a couple of months.

The Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency (UCRRA) Zero Waste Committee selected four community members to help develop a Preliminary Zero Waste Implementation Plan (ZWIP): Shabazz Jackson, Manna Jo Greene, Claudia Joseph, and me, representing KingstonCitizens.org.

Chaired by Chris Hurlbert, the committee recently opened non-voting seats to community members interested in contributing to the planning process. It is a positive step toward bringing community voices into recommendations for a more credible, practical, and sustainable zero waste future.

Because our participation is limited, we have a lot to learn and accomplish in a short period of time. We need to understand what UCRRA is doing, where it is headed, and how our work can best support recommendations to its Board.

Managing Waste vs. Reducing Waste

UCRRA has established 30/60/90 goals: reducing waste 30% by 2030, 60% by 2040, and 90% by 2050.

Its Local Solid Waste Management Plan (LSWMP) is updated every ten years and addresses how the county manages its solid waste system—including collection, transfer, recycling, disposal, and infrastructure. The next plan is expected to be adopted in time for 2030, which is why we are working now to help incorporate zero waste initiatives into it. But adding zero waste initiatives to an LSWMP is not a substitute for actually planning how we will reduce waste. The initiatives need a plan behind them.

A ZWIP, which Ulster County urgently needs, serves a different purpose. It provides the roadmap for reducing the amount of waste we generate and send into the system in the first place. That means establishing measurable reduction and diversion targets, identifying the policies and programs needed to reach them, assigning responsibility, identifying investments, and creating a way to measure and adjust progress.

The zero waste committee heard that UCRRA may already be at or beyond its 30% reduction goal ahead of 2030. However, the “current data is unreliable”  to establish exactly where the county stands.  

That is exactly the kind of work that a ZWIP should analyze to establish a reliable baseline, examine the data we already have, identify what is missing and create a transparent way to track what is being reduced, diverted, and ultimately sent to disposal. 

Why a Real ZWIP is a Worthy Investment   

Hiring an experienced consultant for a ZWIP could be one of the smartest investments the county makes. Ulster County has already invested millions in its transfer station system. A ZWIP can help maximize that investment by identifying how those facilities can do more to prevent, separate, reuse, compost, and recycle materials before they become waste for disposal.

This is an issue we have to get right. It affects our land, water, and air, as well as the way we produce, consume, and ultimately dispose of materials. New Paltz is already moving forward with approaches to reduce and divert waste; the next step is to evaluate what is working there and determine how those lessons can be adapted across the other 18 municipal transfer stations in Ulster County. 

A good consultant could help identify which strategies will have the greatest impact, and establish what our communities, businesses, institutions, UCRRA, and county government each need to do to make them work. 

An investment of approximately $80,000–$100,000 could provide that foundation. The key will be creating a strong RFP based on Zero Waste Hierarchy and selecting a consultant with a demonstrated track record in zero waste implementation—not simply waste management.

That is smart leveraging of the investment that has already made. Before committing to a major new infrastructure, we should first understand what we can achieve through waste prevention, reuse, source separation, composting, recycling, and other strategies—and what infrastructure is actually needed after those opportunities are maximized. 

If UCRRA Sees Global NRG as a Pathway to Zero Waste, It Belongs in the Zero Waste Committee Conversation

The question becomes particularly important now, because UCRRA is considering a proposed $125 million + Global NRG project. Global NRG is the proposed large-scale mixed-waste processing facility that would take municipal solid waste and use mechanical and other technologies to recover materials and divert from disposal.   

As UCRRA Executive Director Marc Rider described it, the public presentation was intended to share UCRRA’s targets—not the specific work needed to reach the end goals. The question is how we get from those targets to actually achieving them. 

After a decade or more of zero waste work in Ulster County, we should have a ZWIP that documents what has been accomplished, what remains to be done, and how the county will get from its current position to 30/60/90. We do not have that plan yet, and we need one 

During the meeting, Rider described Global NRG as “…one of the main projects to get us to Zero Waste.”   If that’s the case, it belongs in the Zero Waste Committee’s conversation.  That is a significant claim for a project carrying a $125 million + price tag and potentially requiring imported waste to keep it operating. We all want to avoid sending waste to Seneca Meadows, and some believe that we may ultimately need to consider a landfill in our own county—but we don’t know that yet. 

That is precisely why we need to first determine how much waste we can eliminate and divert locally. We should not kick the can down the road by building a system that depends on a steady supply of waste to feed it

The committee is not being asked to approve or reject Global NRG; its role is to develop recommendations for the UCRRA Board. To do that responsibly, members need to understand how this proposed infrastructure fits with source reduction, reuse, source separation, composting, recycling, and other strategies—and whether it is actually necessary to achieve 30/60/90.

Connecting the Pieces

Right now, several pieces are moving forward: the Zero Waste Committee is developing zero waste “initiatives” for consideration in UCRRA’s LSWMP, while the Ulster County Legislature is developing zero waste policy guidance.

These efforts should reinforce one another. UCRRA brings operational expertise; the Legislature can advance policy; the Zero Waste Committee can develop practical initiatives; community representatives can bring public experience and accountability; and a qualified zero-waste consultant can help identify gaps, evaluate alternatives, and bring these pieces together into a measurable implementation plan.

But the county needs to do the planning before it locks itself into the “put or pay” infrastructure for 20-25 years.

Get Involved and Take Action

The next UCRRA Zero Waste Committee meeting is Thursday, September 10 at 5:00 PM at UCRRA, 999 Flatbush Road in Kingston, with a livestream available on UCRRA’s YouTube channel, @ucrra5008. The committee meets publicly, and there is an opportunity for public comment at every meeting. The next meetings are October 15, November 12, and December 3. Meeting materials are posted by UCRRA before each meeting.

Attend these meetings. Ask questions. Use public comment.

But most importantly, contact your Ulster County Legislator and ask for two things:

  1. Fund a ZWIP. Support a 2027 budget amendment of $80,000–$100,000 to hire a qualified zero-waste consultant to establish a baseline, identify realistic ways to reduce and divert waste, evaluate alternatives, and determine what infrastructure is actually needed.
  2. Pause Global NRG. Ask the Legislature to support pausing the $125 million + project until this work is completed. While UCRRA is responsible for the project, its financial and long-term impacts will be felt by Ulster County communities and taxpayers. You can also reach out to your local municipal government officials to ask them to advocate for the same. 

Let’s do the planning first—and make the major infrastructure decisions after we know what our communities can actually achieve.

Community Members Selected to Help Develop Ulster County’s Preliminary Zero Waste Implementation Plan

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By Rebecca Martin

The Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency (UCRRA) Zero Waste Committee has selected four community representatives to help develop a Preliminary Zero Waste Implementation Plan: Shabazz Jackson, Manna Jo Greene, Claudia Joseph, and me, representing KingstonCitizens.org.

Chaired by Chris Hurlbert, the UCRRA Zero Waste Committee recently opened non-voting seats for community members interested in contributing to the planning process. The goal is to ensure that community voices are directly represented as recommendations are developed to move Ulster County toward a more credible, practical, and sustainable zero waste future. Interested residents were invited to apply, creating an opportunity for public participation in shaping the county’s waste reduction strategy.

As work on the Preliminary Zero Waste Implementation Plan gets underway, KingstonCitizens.org will document the process and provide updates, in coordination with our partners, to help community members follow the committee’s progress, understand the recommendations under consideration, and engage in opportunities for public participation.

Collaborations Lead to Friendships

One of the most rewarding outcomes of this work is the new partnerships and friendships that are formed along the way. Last year, I had the privilege of meeting Shabazz Jackson and Josephine Papagni through our shared involvement in zero-waste initiatives in Ulster County. What began as a professional collaboration quickly developed into a friendship grounded in a shared commitment to environmental stewardship and community service.

I am especially pleased that Shabazz and I will now serve together on the UCRRA Zero Waste Committee as community representatives. His experience and perspective will be valuable assets as the committee develops recommendations for the county’s zero-waste future.

Today, Shabazz and Josephine installed a backyard composting system at our home in the City of Kingston. The system includes tools that allow us to track the amount of organic material being diverted from disposal, helping us better understand our contribution to waste reduction and resource recovery.

As Ulster County continues to explore zero waste strategies, composting remains one of the simplest and most effective actions residents can take to reduce the amount of material sent to landfills. Community members interested in learning more about backyard composting can contact Shabazz and Josephine at (845) 656-6071 or visit Greenway Environmental Services.

Another Step Toward Public Engagement in Ulster County Zero Waste Planning

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In an effort to expand public participation in Ulster County’s Zero Waste planning process, we recently called on members of the Ulster County Legislature’s Energy, Environment and Sustainability Committee to ensure that meaningful opportunities for public comment are built into MSW consultants’ work on the County’s Zero Waste Policy Guidance document before it is finalized.

If this Policy Guidance document has the potential to shape the path toward a Zero Waste Implementation Plan (ZWIP), then the public must have a seat at the table. With a $10,000 investment already committed, this is a key opportunity to leverage the current work into the next phase of developing a ZWIP in a way that is collaborative, participatory, and properly funded. We urged the need for a public presentation or workshop to share preliminary recommendations, timely online access to materials, a publicly noticed comment period on draft documents, and clear consideration of public input in the final guidance document.

Legislator Chris Hewitt responded, and it’s encouraging.

He wrote that the Legislature will be reaching out to the consultant to create a version of the document that is accessible to the public for edits, feedback, and suggestions. There will also be additional opportunities for input, including during and after the public presentation. We will continue to keep KingstonCitizens.org readers informed so that anyone interested can participate and contribute. If you haven’t already, please sign up for our newsletter for continued updates.

KingstonCitizens.org “Ulster Toward Zero Waste” webinar brings together expertise and advocates from Ulster, Dutchess and Sullivan County

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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.

 

KingstonCitizens.org Announces Spring Webinars on State Environmental Review, Zero Waste Solutions, and Civic Engagement—With Opportunities for Public Action

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KingstonCitizens.org invites community members and advocates in Ulster County to participate in a series of spring webinars focused on proposed changes to state environmental review, local zero waste solutions, and civic engagement—including Charter Reform—equipping the public with knowledge and opportunities to take action.

These events are free.  Please register below to learn how you can engage locally on these issues. 

 

Thursday, March 26 at 6:00pm

The Future of Environmental Review in New York State — What It Means for Local Communities
With special guest Drew Gamils, Senior Attorney, Hudson Riverkeeper

Register: https://hostyurl.com/HH1Ezx

New York State is at a critical moment. Proposed changes in the State budget could significantly alter how environmental review is conducted—raising serious concerns about impacts on public health, community voice, and environmental protection.

For decades, the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) process has served as a vital tool for municipalities. SEQR plays an essential role in helping local decision-makers fully evaluate development projects. It ensures a comprehensive, holistic review of local issues—examining traffic, cumulative impacts, environmental risks, and more. Importantly, SEQR is the only process that requires developers to identify and mitigate these impacts before projects move forward.

Now, swift and potentially harmful amendments being considered as part of the state budget—expected to be adopted by the end of March—could weaken these protections. These changes may limit thorough review, reduce accountability, and ultimately jeopardize the health and well-being of communities across New York. The public deserves to understand what’s at stake—and what can be done.

Participants will learn:

  • What SEQR is and why it matters
  • How proposed budget changes could impact environmental review
  • What these changes mean for local communities
  • The status of pending SEQR regulations
  • How to take action

 

Sunday, April 12 at 7:00pm

Ulster Toward Zero Waste
With special guests Greenway Environmental Services and others TBA

Register: https://hostyurl.com/unUSlP

There is no “away” in throw-away.

What if much of what we call “waste” could instead become a resource? By reducing waste at the source, expanding reuse, separating organics, and recycling properly, communities are showing we can dramatically cut what gets discarded. Communities like New Paltz are already demonstrating practical, local solutions. The New Paltz model shows how community-based systems can reduce waste while turning organic materials into valuable compost.

This webinar will explore the model and how similar approaches could be replicated at all 18 transfer stations across Ulster County, building on existing infrastructure and county investments to create sustainable waste management practices. Before Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency (UCRRA) commits Ulster County to costly new infrastructure—such as a $100M+ “put or pay” project that depends on more waste rather than less—Ulster County needs a Zero Waste Implementation Plan (ZWIP) guided by experts familiar with our local systems and inclusive of all key stakeholders, ensuring that reduction, reuse, recycling, and organics recovery are prioritized.

KingstonCitizens.org is pleased to host Greenway Environmental Services and other special guests to explore what’s possible—and why a locally informed, collaborative ZWIP should come first.

For more information, visit our website:  Ulster Toward Zero Waste

 

Monday, April 13 at 6:00pm

Civics 101: The People’s Guide to Local Government
With special guest Ward 9 Alderwoman and Majority Leader Michele Hirsch, who will join during the second hour to discuss the upcoming City of Kingston charter reform process and how the public can get involved.

Register:  https://hostyurl.com/2nOJ7i

Strong communities start with an informed public. Civics 101 gives everyone in Kingston the tools to understand, engage with, and shape local government—strengthening good government and building people power.

Participants will:

  • Explore the City of Kingston’s website and learn how local government works
  • Hear directly from staff and elected officials as they share their expertise and explain the processes they oversee
  • Gain practical tools and strategies to participate confidently in public life

The second hour will feature a focused discussion on City of Kingston Charter Reform and how the public can get involved with special guest Ward 9 Alderwoman and Majority Leader Michele Hirsch.

Ulster County Must Finish — and Adopt — Its Zero Waste Implementation Plan

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By Rebecca Martin

Ulster County is on the verge of making a major, long-term decision about how it handles trash—before completing the work it already committed to do.

Despite years of discussion and a formal zero waste policy adopted by the Ulster County Legislature in 2019, the County’s Zero Waste Implementation Plan has still not been completed or adopted. That unfinished work now looms large as the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency (UCRRA) advances negotiations for a costly project.

At a Friday, December 12 board meeting, the UCRRA board granted Executive Director Marc Rider authority to negotiate with London-based developer Global NRG for a “cutting-edge” solid waste disposal facility. The proposed project would occupy five acres adjacent to the UCRRA complex at 999 Flatbush Avenue (State Route 32). Global NRG would lease the land but build, own, and operate the facility—at an estimated cost of $100 million.

According to a recent article, the facility would take in all of UCRRA’s municipal solid waste, forecast at 107,100 tons in 2025, with claims that landfill disposal would be reduced by 70 percent. Rider described a mixed materials recovery system using conveyor belts, magnets, and AI-driven optical sorting before converting trash into gas.

These promises may sound appealing—but gasification-style “waste-to-energy” systems raise concerns about air quality and toxic byproducts. These technologies have known environmental and operational uncertainties, including the need for a guaranteed, long-term supply of trash—risks undermining zero waste goals.

What makes this moment especially troubling is that Ulster County’s Zero Waste Implementation Plan remains unfinished.

While the County adopted a zero waste policy in 2019, the practical roadmap for how to achieve it—the implementation plan—has stalled repeatedly. At one point, approximately $10,000 was allocated toward advancing the plan, yet it was never brought to completion. Now, responsibility for finishing it rests with the Legislature, which would need to pass a budget amendment in the 2026 budget to complete the work. Without that action, the plan could be delayed yet again, potentially for years.

This matters because zero waste is not a slogan; it is a strategy. A true zero waste approach prioritizes waste reduction at the source, organics diversion, reuse and repair, and steady decreases in disposal. Entering into a long-term agreement for a facility that depends on a constant flow of trash risks creating incentives that conflict with the waste reduction strategies zero waste is meant to promote.

Ulster County should not lock itself into an expensive, high-risk waste-to-energy project while the Zero Waste Implementation Plan—promised years ago—remains unfinished and unfunded, pre-empting the very waste-reduction strategies the County claims to support.

TAKE ACTION:  Call your Ulster County Legislator to discuss this problem, and urge them to amend the budget to complete, adopt, and fully fund our Zero Waste Implementation plan—and put it to work. With each year of delay, we risk relying on projects that do nothing to reduce waste at the source or expand composting—a status quo we can no longer afford.

READ: Ulster agency eyes 70% reduction of garbage going to landfills with trash-to-gas system