Waste Minimization Workshop
Where: SUNY Sullivan, Loch Sheldrake, NY
When: Friday, May 15th from 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM

From Caroline Baillie, Rebekah Creshkoff, and Eric Feinblatt for Sustainable Sullivan:

We’ve been resisting legislators’ plans to bring in a trash incinerator (they call it a “waste-to-energy facility”), which would inevitably harm human health in our communities and change Sullivan County forever.

But it’s not enough just to say “No.” We need to offer viable alternatives so legislators can see a better path forward. And by regarding waste as a resource to be mined instead of garbage to be disposed of, we can identify new possibilities.

To that end, we are holding a workshop on Friday, May 15 from 5:30 to 8 pm at SUNY Sullivan for community members to learn about promising options, discuss how we could implement them in our county, and form working groups to start addressing them. Register here.

We’ll hear from Diane Cohen, founder and executive director of Finger Lakes ReUse, a nonprofit that diverts literally tons of waste from landfill every year while supporting the local economy and providing job training and skills development. Its activities include: deconstruction services, an alternative to demolition that salvages building materials; a program that refurbishes and repairs computers and electronics; and a warehouse full of gently used or repaired items diverted from the “waste” stream. All three activities yield useful products that are sold back to the community at affordable prices.

We’ll also hear from Shabazz Jackson and Josephine Papagni of Greenway Environmental Services in Ulster County. This commercial composting operation processes not only food scraps and yard waste, but stumps, logs, pallets and unpainted lumber into high-performance topsoil and compost to restore our rapidly deteriorating soil health. Biodegradable materials make up 30-35% of what we discard, so diverting the bulk of them could make a significant dent in the county’s waste stream.

Help pave the way toward responsible waste management in our county. Please RSVP here today and join us on Friday, May 15 from 5:30 to 8 pm at SUNY Sullivan, 112 College Road in Loch Sheldrake. Park in Lot 1 and follow the signs to the Upper Herman conference room.

We hope to see you on the 15th. Together we can strategize a sane and sensible future for waste management in Sullivan County.