Why can't The Hudson Valley News print the truth?...
The September 30th article in The Hudson Valley News reporting on my debate w/Dealy Sept. 23rd at Clinton Town Hall contained this sentence:
"Tyner also prepared a press release the following morning calling Dealy a liar."
See below-- and look for yourselves-- there's a big difference between calling someone a liar (which I didn't) and saying they're lying (which Dealy did repeatedly that night in Clinton about my Green Ribbon Task Force report)...
Email editorial@thehudsonvalleynews.com and ask them-- why can't they print the truth?...
Joel
242-3571/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
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[here below-- the actual press release I sent out to media-- nowhere below do I call Dealy "a liar"-- period]
From: Joel Tyner
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:48:31 -0400
To: "Media folks"
Subject: Media-- press conf. Thurs. noon re: Dealy's debate lies tonighon Green Ribbon report...
PRESS CONFERENCE TOMORROW (THURS.) NOON IN FRONT OF COUNTY OFFICE BUILDING:
ENVIR. COMM. CHAIR JOEL TYNER CHALLENGED GOP DEALY @ CLINTON DEBATE TONIGHT:
REPUB./CONSERVATIVE DEALY LIED THREE TIMES TONIGHT AT CLINTON TOWN HALL DEBATE:
THREE TIMES DEALY SAID TYNER'S TASK FORCE REPORT FOR DCRRA SHUTDOWN: WRONG(!);
DEALY ALSO LIED, SAYING TASK FORCE REPORT FOR 2 NEW LANDFILLS IN COUNTY: WRONG(!)
PATHETIC AND SHAMEFUL OF DEALY TO TWIST FACTS-- WHILE FAILING TO DO HOMEWORK;
[BLATANTLY OBVIOUS AT THIS POINT THAT DEALY DIDN'T EVEN READ GREEN RIBBON REPORT]
TYNER CHALLENGED DEALY AT DEBATE TONITE: JOIN TYNER TOMORROW TO EXPAIN HIMSELF
[DEALY SEEMS TO BE BRINGING 80'S ADAM & THE ANTS BACK: DESPERATE BUT NOT SERIOUS]
[Info: 242-3571; 876-2488]
Dutchess County Legislature Environmental Committee Chair Joel Tyner, County Legislator for Clinton and Rhinebeck, will be holding a press conference tomorrow (Thursday September 24th) at noon in front of the Dutchess County Office Building at 22 Market Street in Poughkeepsie to set the record straight and counter lies made at tonight's (Wednesday's) debate by Republican/Conservative Co. Leg. candidate Pat Dealy (Rhinebeck Republican Committee Chair John Wirth and Democratic Committee Representative Jeff Romano were the moderators for tonight's debate at Clinton Town Hall).
Specifically, Tyner challenged Dealy to join him tomorrow at noon for this-- to show Tyner exactly where in his Green Ribbon Solid Waste Management Task Force report (released last week) it is, that, as Dealy lied three times tonight, supposedly (according to Dealy), Tyner's report calls for shutting down our county's 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 Tyner's 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: TYNER'S 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 Tyner's 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 tonight's debate was about how supposedly Tyner's 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-- Tyner challenged Dealy at tonight's debate to join him tomorrow (Thursday) at noon in front of our County Office Building-- to prove to Tyner in the report where exactly Tyner's Green Ribbon report calls for creation of two new landfills (because it doesn't!).
Click here for final report from Tyner's Green Ribbon Task Force on Solid Waste Management:
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/assets/pdf/BK142669916.PDF (and also scroll down just below!).
Tyner again thanks Green Ribbon Task Force members for many open meetings this spring/summer:
-- Tom Baldino, City of Beacon Conservation Advisory Council Chair
-- Ryan Courtien, Dover Town Supervisor
-- Shabazz Jackson, Greenway Environmental Services
-- Jack Hess, Hess Hauling
-- Michael Long, City of Poughkeepsie City Administrator
-- Stephen Lynch, R.S. Lynch & Company
-- Jonathan Smith, "Progressive Perspective" columnist for The Hudson Valley News
-- Rita Trocino, Recycle Depot
[and thanks much as well to Co. Leg. Assistant to the Chair Fred Knapp for his time and info on this too]
As Tyner informed his colleagues in our County Legislature on this last week, he will make sure there is time during October's Environmental Committee meeting for a presentation on this report-- with Q & A.
Note as well-- Tyner is also more than a little bit concerned about the recommendations from the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency's hand-picked consultant's report that came out last week from Germano and Cahill, P.C. and Gerhardt, LLC-- their 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"(!).
Fact: The tip fee paid at gate of our county's incinerator is about $70/ton (paid by haulers; passed to us).
Fact: The DCRRA/incinerator taxpayer subsidy in our county budget is about $5 million-- with roughly 130,000 tons of municipal solid waste burned annually-- costing taxpayers another $38/ton.
Fact: That adds up to about a $108/ton cost for trash at our incinerator.
Fact: Putting the costs of the incinerator into the tip fee (as the DCRRA's report seems to strongly recommend, sadly) will bring cost per ton to $120/ton-- 40% more than any other WTE plant in NY(!).
Fact: By way of contrast, other similar incinerator plants in the Northeast have roughly $75/ton cost.
Fact: The stated policy of the DCRRA is to seek out bids and issue Requests for Proposals.
Fact: "No Bid Deals Might Add to Agency's Financial Trouble" [Poughkeepsie Journal July 12th]
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090712/NEWS01/907120337
Recall these four other great investigative exposé pieces from MB Pfeiffer over last several months:
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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Comments < 30 Dutchess residents at Tyner's zero-waste effort: 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 July 16th Pok. Journal: "Local Unemployment Posts Another Rise: Dutchess Rate Hits 8.1%"
[ http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090716/BUSINESS/90716016 ; not much better now]
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Dutchess County Green Ribbon Task Force on Solid Waste Management
Summary of Recommendations in General
The Dutchess County Green Ribbon Task Force on Solid Waste Management is a group of local leaders, residents and solid waste experts assembled by the Chairman of the Dutchess County Legislature to discuss and recommend action on the following four (4) topics:
1. Recommendations for development of a comprehensive plan for the management of the county's solid waste disposal needs.
2. Complete a review of the need and feasibility of continuation of the Resource Recovery Agency.
3. Develop and outline options for the elimination of the RRA's annual "net service fee" charged to the County.
4. Develop recommendations for the elimination of disposal waste in the County, including but not limited to; expanded recycling efforts which should encompass education and enforcement efforts and possible incentives, options for the creation of energy and reusable products from disposal waste and identify methods and incentives to encourage and create "green collar" jobs aimed at disposing the County's solid waste in an environmentally sound manner.
After meeting for several months to discuss the current conditions in Dutchess County, share examples of pilot programs that have been successful in other communities and debate the feasibility of different options proposed by members of the Task Force for solutions to the above topics, the Green Ribbon Task Force supports the recommendations filed in this summary report.
It is not within the scope of this Task Force, nor do we have the resources to develop and propose a complete Solid Waste Management Plan. Rather, our approach is to offer certain guiding principles, with specific themes outlined, which we believe are appropriate to be utilized by the County and its team of solid waste management plan consultants.
The following are the guiding principles we would recommend, categorized into the four areas which the Green Ribbon Task Force was directed to address.
1. Recommendations for development of a comprehensive plan for the management of the County's solid waste and recyclables
A. The Green Ribbon Task Force recommends that the Dutchess County Legislature put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a solid waste planning consultant or team of consultants (The Consultant) that will be responsible to advise the members of the legislature on a New Dutchess County Local Solid Waste Management Plan (PLAN). Duties of the Consultant should include but not be limited to: identifying the key issues for waste in the county, preparing analysis of the current conditions of the county waste system, preparing analysis for possible future proposals to the PLAN and preparing amendments and modifications to the proposed PLAN to conform the proposal to the best possible public policy. The specific recommendations of the Green Ribbon Task Force for areas of focus in the PLAN are contained throughout this report.
B. County representatives and future solid waste planning consultants should follow closely the highly prescriptive process required for Local Solid Waste Management Planning as further prescribed in:
New York Law Part 360-15.9, Comprehensive Local SWM Plans, and
Part 360-1.9(f) Comprehensive Recycling Analysis.
In evaluating future waste management and recycling options the new PLAN should consider, among other criteria, the following:
1. The environmental impact, both locally and regionally of the options at hand, and
2. The cost and affordability of all options including alternative mechanisms for the payment of such services such as possible legislative flow control.
C. The Green Ribbon Task Force recommends that the New Dutchess County Local Solid Waste Management Plan incorporate, to the maximum extent feasible, facilities and systems that will greatly increase material recycling and composting from their current level throughout the County and establish Dutchess County as a waste reduction, recycling and composting leader in the State. The Task Force requests that the PLAN and the Consultant chosen to advise the legislature thoroughly examine the possibility of setting countywide mandated recycling goal of 70% of all municipal solid waste generated in Dutchess County by the year 2020 by substantially increasing our food waste composting infrastructure.
D. We recommend that the planning process begin with the recognition that the County's current waste management infrastructure handles only roughly 50% of the MSW generated within the County. The new PLAN should address both (1) how the current waste and recycling infrastructure (the Resource Recovery Facility and the Hudson Baylor MRF) can be modified or replaced in order to better handle the 50% currently being addressed and (2) what new facilities and systems are most appropriate to handle the remaining waste and recyclables generated within the County.
2. Complete a Review of the need and feasibility of continuation of the Resource Recovery Agency.
The Green Ribbon Task Force believes that the current governance arrangements for waste management in Dutchess County (basically all duties delegated to the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency) has failed on many levels, especially by virtue of the fact that costs incurred by the Resource Recovery Agency at the expense of the taxpayers is far in excess of industry standards. The new PLAN must evaluate and identify new and better options, such as a new Dutchess County Waste and Recycling Management Authority, or more active participation of the County's Public Works Committee or Solid Waste Commissioner, to name just a few.
Whatever new governance mechanism is selected must avoid the mismanagement currently dominating waste management in Dutchess County. Better mechanisms of oversight and transparency are critical to the success of the PLAN and must be clearly outlined by the County's SWM consultant. The Task Force further recommends that the legislature have the power of budgetary review over any new governance mechanism.
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 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. 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.
3. Develop and outline options for the elimination of the RRA's annual "net service fee" charged to the County
Legislative flow control in Dutchess County may offer a prudent mechanism for the future funding of both waste disposal and recycling programs. It is very important, however, that all parties recognize that simply moving the current net service fee away from the County budget and imposing it on system users through correspondingly higher tip fees enforced through legislative flow control captures no real savings to taxpayers, homeowners and businesses.
True waste and recycling cost reform is, however, available by elimination of the mismanagement currently dominating waste management in Dutchess County. We strongly recommend that the new PLAN evaluate each and every capital and operating cost line item incurred by the DCRRA, compare it to benchmark levels for similar facilities and identify ways to bring these millions of dollars of out-of-control spending levels into alignment with industry standards for the remaining life of the Agency.
Additionally, it is a recommendation of the Task Force that the legislature review the possibility of canceling or renegotiating the expensive county contract with the burn plant facility operator, possibly incurring some costs but ultimately relieving taxpayers of a contract that is much more expensive than industry standards. The Task Force also recommends that the facility operator be in compliance with labor laws, environmental laws and occupational safety laws at all times.
4. Develop recommendations for the elimination of disposal waste in the County, including but not limited to; expanded recycling efforts which should encompass education and enforcement efforts and possible incentives, options for the creation of energy and reusable products from disposal waste and identify methods and incentives to encourage and create "green collar" jobs aimed at disposing the County's solid waste in an environmentally sound manner.
It is the recommendation of the Task Force that a separate and distinct report be commissioned from nationally known zero-waste experts through legislative action to establish detailed cost analysis and implementation outlines for a Dutchess County Zero-Waste Pilot Program (DCZWPP). It is the intention of the Task Force that the DCZWPP should be prepared and implemented by 2011.
Dutchess County's unemployment rate is now over eight percent (twice what it was just two years ago), with well over ten thousand local residents officially out of work. The fact is that recycling and composting (a zero-waste approach to resource recovery) creates ten times more jobs than incineration and landfilling, according to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. On a national level, over two-thirds of the materials we use are still burned or buried, despite the fact we have the technical capacity to cost-effectively recycle, reuse, or compost 90% of what we waste; here in Dutchess County we owe it to ourselves and the rest of the country to get as close to 90% as possible as soon as possible.
The members of The Green Ribbon Task Force are committed to reducing the environmental impact of waste disposal in Dutchess County while simultaneously bringing costs in-line with industry standards. To that end, the Task Force recommends that the Dutchess County Legislature authorize the development of several pilot programs around the county. These programs will be dedicated to the advancement of research and assess the feasibility of a cutting edge zero-waste program in the county. While several independent pilot programs exist around the county, only through a coordinated program can the full feasibility of these programs be determined. The following is an outline of specific elements of the DCZWPP that are strongly recommended to be considered by the Consultant:
1. The county should help facilitate the creation of an eco-industrial resource recovery park to create jobs recycling current resources that are disposed of-- food waste, fats, oils, greases, glass, electronic scrap, mattresses, and construction and demolition debris
2. Utilize existing infrastructure and the existing collection and labor to demonstrate the feasibility of ZERO WASTE
a. Beacon Transfer Station
b. City of Poughkeepsie Howard street
3. Establish specific parameters for the demonstration:
a. Demonstration time frame (beginning and ending dates)
b. Determine desired measurements
c. Determine protocol for measuring, quantifying and reporting results
4. Once the demonstration project has established the feasibility of ZERO WASTE the next step is to:
a. Make modifications and adjustments
b. Implement the program permanently
c. Utilize the demonstration sites to train the remainder of Dutchess County
5. Because the demographics of Dutchess County are so diverse (urban / suburban / rural), each service area would have its' own intermediate processing facility that would be modeled after the demonstration facilities.
6. The intermediate processing facilities would:
a. Localize organic waste management. Each of the local intermediate transfer facilities will process the organics, achieving volume reduction and hygrading the material for distribution into the local market.
b. Function as a primary aggregation for source separated (generator) recyclables. The generator separates the recyclables, the hauler collects and delivers them to the Transfer Facilities where the material is given a final inspection and aggregated into full loads for eventual transport to the existing central recycling facility (MRF).
7. Centralizing recycling allows the county to:
a. Maximize the value of the recovered materials.
b. Attract industries that will utilize this recovered material as a source of their manufacturing stock
c. Plastics can be recycled into new uses. Plastic wood is one example of a product that has a high value in the market. It has the function and strength of wood, yet is not subject to rotting, warping, and insect damage.
d. The _plastic wood_ is being used with great success in horticultural applications. This has the added benefit of completing the recovery cycle from the generator to the collector to the processor and finally to the consumer (AKA: back to the generator) - all within the local loop of the county.
e. The market for recovered glass is stable as glass continues to be manufactured in this country.
According to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's President Neil Seldman: "At least 60% of the total municipal solid waste and construction and demolition waste (C and D) generated in the region can be processed in the area. The markets for these materials are within the region. Markets are good for lumber, topsoil/compost, clean aggregate, mulch, glass. These materials are needed by the construction industry, renovation sector, landscaping/grounds keeping/nursery industries, agriculture. These materials are valuable because they have embodied energy and labor, save water and energy, and avoid landfill and incineration costs. The more materials diverted the more jobs, small business growth and expanded tax base, the region accrues. Moreover, companies in the region have already started operating-- including glass processing, composting, c and d processing, commercial waste recycling.
8. Rockland County recycled 41,000 tons of cans, bottles, plastics, and paper last year at their Materials Recovery Facility (MRF)-- with a population almost identical to that of Dutchess County (about 290,000)-- while Dutchess County recycled only 8,000 tons of cans, bottles, plastics, and paper last year at our MRF.
Rockland County also recycles plastics #1 through #7, as Wayne and Yates counties has long done as well; obviously there are markets in our region for plastics #4 and #6; it's time that Dutchess County recycled all plastics #1 through #7, instead of just #1, #2, #3, #5, and #7.
To increase recycling in Dutchess County, our county's Resource Recovery Agency and Division of Solid Waste Management should make sure that recycling bins for cans and bottles and office paper are placed next to all trash receptacles in the county, and work with the Dutchess County Sheriff's office to enforce the county's law on this. According to the official Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency website, "under Dutchess County's Mandatory Recycling Law, the following materials are required to be kept separate from trash: office paper (copy paper, stationery, computer paper, ledger), newspaper, corrugated cardboard, glass bottles and jars (clear, brown and green colored); metal cans (tin/bi-metal/aluminum); aluminum pie plates and foil; PETE and HDPE plastic containers (except automotive product containers), and major appliances, tires, yard debris."
9. Once food-waste composting infrastructure is available, Dutchess County should mandate that organic materials be processed through this mechanism rather than as trash at our county incinerator, transfer stations, or by waste haulers, as in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, and Nova Scotia. Dutchess County should also ban electronic waste from being accepted as trash at transfer stations, at the county incinerator, and by waste haulers as has been done in New York City, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Oregon, North Carolina, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Arkansas, and enforce a ban on recyclable construction demolition and debris from incineration and landfilling as well.
10. Dutchess County's cities, towns, and villages with municipal curbside collection should implement curbside SMART/PAYT (Save Money and Reduce Trash/Pay-As-You-Throw) programs as Binghamton, Utica, and Ithaca have done already and as the City of Kingston is in the process of doing now, as DEC Region 3 Regional Recycling Specialist Terry Laibach has recommended (and as seven thousand other communities across the U.S. are now doing). As the EPA has noted, "Communities with programs in place have reported significant increases in recycling and reductions in waste, due primarily to the waste reduction incentive created by PAYT. In communities with pay-as-you-throw programs, residents are charged for the collection of municipal solid waste- ordinary household trash- based on the amount they throw away. This creates a direct economic incentive to recycle more and to generate less waste. Traditionally, residents pay for waste collection through property taxes or a fixed fee, regardless of how much-or how little-trash they generate. Pay-As-You-throw (PAYT) breaks with tradition by treating trash services just like electricity, gas, and other utilities. Households pay a variable rate depending on the amount of service they use. PAYT is an effective tool for communities struggling to cope with soaring municipal solid waste management expenses. Well-designed programs generate the revenues communities need to cover their solid waste costs, including the costs of such complementary programs as recycling and composting. Residents benefit, too, because they have the opportunity to take control of their trash bills."
11. As Institute for Local Self-Reliance President Neil Seldman has stated, "The best bet for Dutchess County is a dual-stream system of recycling. Single-stream in Dutchess County run by your county government or a local private contractor would be a good change in the right direction, but single-stream with materials fed to a centralized facility miles away would mean no jobs for Dutchess County and low value for your materials, as has happened in Washington, D.C. Many U.S. paper mills will not accept recycled paper from single-stream programs."
As Conservatree noted in a recent report (cited by the Institute of Local Self-Reliance's Brenda Platt), "The introduction of single stream collection systems has not had such uniformly positive results for recycled product manufacturers. Instead, it has accelerated an already pronounced slide towards poorly sorted recovered materials, with glass, plastics and metals being delivered to paper mills in bales of fiber, the wrong types of fiber going to paper mills that can only use specific grades, and increased contamination, as well as materials lost to plastics, glass and aluminum manufacturers. Recyclable materials that were recovered for recycling in community programs but then sent to the wrong types of manufacturers generally end up in landfills near the mills. In other words, poor processing trashes recyclables. While more than 75% of recovered materials from many single stream curbside programs are paper fiber, the problems created by delivery of poorly sorted recovered materials affect all recycling manufacturers. Glass and paper fibers mixed in with the plastics, or ceramics and plastics mixed into the glass, or glass mixed with aluminum cans all present serious problems for those manufacturers."
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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 Tyner 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-- Tyner has 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 Tyner co-hosted July 29th and June 24th at Rhinebeck Town Hall with Shabazz Jackson and Josephine Papagni of Greenway Environmental Services).
[update: Meg Crawford making presentation from Shabazz happen @ Rhinebeck Town Board Oct. 26;
contact Shabazz Jackson-- greenway777@aol.com or 656-6070 for much more info on this-- success
(because Tyner 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 Tyner's 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 Tyner's 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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