Ithaca's 10-Year Solid Waste Plan

On Tuesday, residents of Ithaca, New York, attended a meeting hosted by the Tompkins County Recycling and Materials Management (TCRMM) Department to discuss a proposed 10-year solid waste plan. 

"Building upon the county’s robust recycling programs, 'Rethinking Waste in Tompkins County' acknowledges the tremendous opportunity to foster a local circular economy where materials are used for their best value for as long as possible, and products at their end-of-life become feedstocks for new systems," according to the TCRMM. "This holistic approach to materials management leans into 4R programming to reduce, reuse, recycle, and rethink the community’s waste."

Kat McCarthy, TCRMM’s waste reduction and recycling specialist, was the lead writer of this plan. “Waste prevention represents the largest opportunity to reduce waste, by not creating it in the first place,” McCarthy said during the presentation. “And this requires a departure from the single-use, disposable ethos that is pervasive in this country.”

The TCRMM hopes to create a local circular economy in Ithaca and to implement new programs such as the creation of a task force to partner with local food recovery organizations.

Michael Volino, the town supervisor of the Town of Thurston in Steuben County, spoke during the meeting. He voiced concerns about Ithaca's use of a landfill owned by Casella Waste Systems. According to Jonathan Mong, writing for The Ithaca Voice, Casella intends to spread sewer sludge in Thurston.

“We’re pushing back on this as a town,” Volino said. “We are a small, rural community. We don’t have a lot of funds, but we are pushing back."

He commented that in Thurston, there has been "land application for 40-plus years of biosolids, of sewage sludge, wastewater facilities, and we are seeing people with various cancers. We’re concerned with the increase of more coming in.”

He also pointed out that the process of land-applying sewer sludge is banned in the state of Maine.

Representatives from Zero Waste Ithaca also participated in the meeting. They noted the benefits of preventing PFAS (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances) chemicals from being unloaded into the environment.

Public comments will be accepted until August 7.

The following information appears in the Executive Summary of the draft of the 191-page new solid waste plan:

The purpose of this Plan is to describe the path to be pursued for managing materials generated in Tompkins County during a ten-year planning period in an economical and environmentally sound manner that is consistent with the State’s solid waste management policy. The planning period will commence following approval of this Plan by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and is projected to encompass 2023-2032.

This Plan will: 1) serve as a countywide framework for the coordination of solid waste management; 2) establish countywide materials diversion goals and objectives as well as a plan to monitor progress toward the goals; and 3) satisfy NYSDEC requirements for solid waste planning and comprehensive recycling analyses.

With strong goals for reducing, reusing, recycling, and rethinking waste, the Tompkins County Department of Recycling and Materials Management (TCRMM) has identified [an] opportunity to foster a circular economy that applies a systems approach to materials management. Through this strategy, systems are developed to ensure that materials are used for their highest value for as long as possible, with end-products becoming inputs for new systems. This approach will further activity for reducing waste generation, increasing reuse and recovery, and ultimately decreasing disposal, now and in the future.