Search Results for: recycling

Mayor Kathy Sheehan Speaks to Save the Pine Bush

by Tom Ellis ALBANY, NY: Albany Mayor-Elect Kathy Sheehan spoke at the November 20 SPB dinner.  Kathy said she is from a big Irish Catholic family, Albany residents “are desperate for change,” and residents told her “Albany is like an incredible stallion that someone keeps pulling on the reins.”  She said she plans considerable community involvement in the decision-making processes of Albany.  When others make decisions for us, we get the Empire State Plaza that cuts Center Square off from downtown…

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Stop the Landfill Expansion — Get Involved!

VILLAGE OF COLONIE: On May 3, Save the Pine Bush members met to discuss the next steps in fighting against the proposed landfill expansion in the Pine Bush and for a rational solid waste police. Village of Colonie Mayor Frank Leak graciously opened the Village of Colonie Family Recreation Center for our meeting. Mayor Leak told us of a recent visit he made to the Rapp Road landfill at the invitation of Albany County Legislators William Clay and Frank Commisso….

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The Dump Expansion is for Who?

By BRIAN NEARING, Staff Writer ALBANY – The city of Albany is among the state’s dozen worst polluters for its plans to expand the Rapp Road dump into the Pine Bush, according to a statewide environmental group’s annual listing released Tuesday. Citizens’ Environmental Coalition also cited the General Electric Co. for alleged foot-dragging over the cleanup of the Dewey Loeffel dump in Nassau, Rensselaer County; and the state Department of Environmental Conservation, under former Gov. George Pataki, for underfunding maverick…

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The Goal is to Phase Out Landfills

ALBANY: Val Washington, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Deputy Commissioner of the divisions of Solid and Hazardous Materials, Environmental Remediation and Mineral Resources, spoke at the July vegetarian/vegan lasanga dinner at the First Presbyterian Church. Beginning her speech with kind words about Save the Pine Bush, Val outlined her priorities for solid waste at the Department of Environmental Conservation. Her priorities include going back to the basis of reduction, reuse, and recycling. She said the goal is to eliminate the…

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Waste-to-Energy One Solution to the Garbage Issue

by Lynne Jackson ALBANY: Jack Lauber spoke at the February, 2006 vegetarian/vegan lasagna dinner at the First Presbyterian Church in Albany about the safety and feasibility of waste-to-energy. Mr. Lauber is an environmental engineer, who used to work at the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. He is very proud of the many incinerators he has shut down for polluting. Mr. Lauber first came to Save the Pine Bush’s attention when he wrote an opinion piece in the Times Union last…

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Save the Pine Bush Barred from Court

by Lynne Jackson ALBANY: John Waffenschmidt, Vice-President & Business Development, Covanta Energy spoke at the Save the Pine Bush vegetarian-vegan lasagna dinner about Global Warming, Energy Use & Solid Waste Management at the First Presbyterian Church. He began by speaking about global warming. There is no question the globe is warming up. Effects of this global warming can be seen by rising waters in the coastal zone, and increase in forest fires and in rising temperatures. Temperatures have been collected…

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Proposed Landfill Expansion a Collision of Factors

By Lynne Jackson ALBANY: The proposed landfill expansion in the Albany Pine Bush could be used by the new administration in the State of New York as a catalyst for change in solid waste policy in the state. Over the past year, Save the Pine Bush has had many speakers discussing the solid waste issue. We had some speakers that were not popular with environmentalists who spoke about Waste-to-Energy. It was after John Waffenschmidt, Vice-President of Business Development from Covanta…

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News from Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission

To the Editor: At a recent Albany Common Council General Services Committee meeting concerning the expansion of the Rapp Road landfill, three issues of concern were raised: the city hot line phone number established to report complaints about the smell emanating from the landfill; the little monetary reward the city realizes from the methane-to-energy project; and the lack of funding by the city to promote the three R’s of conservation — reduction, reuse and recycling. The General Services Committee was…

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No Magic Bullet: Solving the Garbage Problem

by Lynne Jackson ALBANY: Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage, a movie by Heather Rogers, was shown at the April vegetarian/vegan lasagna dinner. Afterwards, I moderated a discussion of the movie and garbage. In my travels and listening about the garbage issue, I have noticed that no one wants a landfill near them. However, I observe some statistics I learned from the movie and the book of the same name: each person in the US produces an average of…

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Integrating the Landfill into the Pine Bush or What do you do with a Landfill?

by Lynne Jackson ALBANY: Dr. George Robinson gave an excellent succinct speech about landfill reclamation at the January Save the Pine Bush dinner at the First Presbyterian Church. Dr. Robinson, an associate professor of biology at the University of Albany, started by talking about the history of landfills. He mentioned many historic buildings, such as the Imperial Palace in Peking, are built on landfills. Landfills, explained Dr. Robinson, are land forms. They are highly engineered, and have about a 25-year…

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Its not a Garbage Problem Its an Economic Problem

by Lynne Jackson ALBANY: Albany City Commission of the Department of General Services Willard (Bill) Bruce spoke at the May Save the Pine Bush dinner. Mr. Bruce began by showing slides of how landfills are constructed. He emphasized that the Rapp Road landfill is not just a dump, it is a highly-engineered structure and there is a great deal of infrastructure in the landfill. Components of the landfill He began with a photo of the electrical generation system which produces…

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What to do with the Garbage

ALBANY: The City of Albany has a serious problem: where to throw the garbage. If the City follows the law, and does the right thing, they will not be able to expand the current landfill in the Pine Bush. City officials all seem to want to do the right thing, except when it comes to challenging the garbage.   Face it: no one wants a landfill in their neighborhood. No one. Ask anyone, no one wants a landfill next door. No…

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What Part of the Pine Bush Does the City Want for Allied Waste?

by Lynne Jackson ALBANY: In an astonishing article in the Hearst-owned Times Union, veteran investigative reporter Brian Nearing revealed the City of Albany’s dirty little secret: nearly 70% of the garbage dumped in the landfill is dumped by Allied Waste at a bargain basement price of $38 a ton; 46% lower than the $70 charged other commercial haulers and 27% lower than the $52 per ton charged to members of the ANSWERS consortium. “It is like we are running the…

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The Albany Common Council The Debate and the Vote

by Lynne Jackson ALBANY: On Tuesday, September 12, at a meeting of the Common Council General Services Committee, the City of Albany made its third proposal to take protected Pine Bush land and turn it into a landfill. It is important to consider the history of the City’s landfill expansion proposals in the past year. First, the City proposed to take 20 acres of the 60 acre “Fox Run Mobile Home Park” parcel. A condition of the permit to operate…

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A Plan for Planning

by Richard Clark We in Albany County don’t know what to do about the disposal of solid waste.  Mayor Gerald Jennings would rather not expand the Rapp Road landfill on land dedicated to the Pine Bush Preserve Commission, but he desperately needs the money and the jobs that landfill generates.  He argues that time is running out.  We have no better choice than to ask the Department of Environmental Conservation for the fourth time for permission to expand.  He gives…

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News from our SCRAP Friends

The Appellate Court hearing on the SCRAP (Selkirk, Coeymans, Ravena Against Pollution) members’ case against the City of Albany will be held on September 5, 2007 at 1pm on the fifth floor of the Justice Building at the Empire State Plaza (for directions, email Jim Travers at jatrav@yahoo.com). It is the plaintiffs’ contention that the City of Albany has illegally purchased the Coeymans lands for the proposed landfill because the City ignored State Law and the Rules and Regulations of…

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Burn Tires vs. Clean Air

ALBANY, NY: Paul Tick and Tina Lieberman spoke at the January 15, 2020 SPB dinner about plans by Lafarge to burn tire at its cement factory in Ravena, twelve miles south of Albany. Paul began his comments with saying that when he moved to the capital region 32 years ago, he immediately looked for activists to hook up with and found Save the Pine Bush.  Paul quickly reviewed important Lafarge events of the past 26 months. In late 2017, Coeymans…

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by Lynne Jackson ALBANY, NY: The July SPB veggie lasagna dinner at the First Presbyterian Church was a forum for a bevy of politicians. Everyone came out to support Pine Bush preservation, a welcome change from previous elections. Candidates from Albany, most facing primaries in September attended as well as Ken Runion, candidate for Guilderland Town Supervisor who faces his challengers in the general election. First to speak was Marggie Skinner, Democrat, running for Common Council in the 9th ward…

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Strategy & the Story Behind the Albany County Styrofoam Ban

by Wendy Dwyer ALBANY, NY: Tina Lieberman spoke at the November SPB dinner. For Tina, this was her first attempt at getting a law passed and she said it took a lot of people. Tina asked people who had helped in some way (writing letters, attending hearings, signing petitions, etc) to stand up and almost everyone in the room had helped! Tina said Albany County Executive, Dan McCoy, felt the letters to the editor really influenced the legislators. There were…

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Zero Waste Jazzes Up the City of Albany

The City of Albany is about to hold its first ever Zero Waste Festival! Albany’s Riverfront Jazz Festival is slated to celebrate its 17th anniversary on Saturday, September 8th from 1-9 pm at Jennings Landing. For the first time this festival will bring its attendees more than great music, Hudson River views and evening fireworks – the festival will also bring new hands-on insight into waste reduction, recycling and composting. To accomplish this, the City of Albany will be partnering with…

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Anerobic digester and the Albany Landfill

by Diana Wright On March 28, Albany and Saratoga Counties unveiled plans for a jointly funded aerobic digester facility in Menands. It has bi-partisan support in the Albany County Legislature and will save each county $1 million annually. It will shut down 4 incinerators at the current facility, which spew out toxic chemicals into the air, and will instead create green energy which could potentially power, in part, the Sheridan Hollow facility. (see article in the Saratogian at: http://www.saratogian.com/general-news/20180328/saratoga-albany-counties-join-forces-on-45m-waste-to-energy-plant) The…

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Solid Waste Issues in the City of Albany, the Town of Colonie and the Proposed Changes in the NYS Solid Waste Regulations

by Tom Ellis ALBANY. NY: There is much to report on issues regarding solid wastes. The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC or En Con)) DEC held a public hearing in Albany to receive comments on proposed revisions to its Part 360 regulations, DEC is assisting the Town of Colonie with its landfill expansion application,” and the City of Albany recently held a short public comment period on its proposals to (1) mechanize the collection of household wastes and recyclables,…

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Landfill Committee forming

by Diana Wright Given the plight of the Albany City Landfill and the dismaying information gathered at the 3 forums held by the City last month, PAUSE would like to form a committee to address the landfill dilemma looming over us. We had a preliminary meeting on July 6 to  see what kind of interest there is and it was decided that we would like to work with other local groups to devise a plan which would provide a positive…

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How Can We Reverse the Tide of Trump’s Plan to Eliminate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency? — Part I

by Hugh Johnson ALBANY. NY: Judith Enck, former EPA Regional Director of New York State’s Region II, and until recently the first visiting Scholar at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, spoke at the Save the Pine Bush vegetarian lasagna dinner at the Westminster Presbyterian Church on June 21. Like many Americans, January 20 was a sad day for her. It was the day she lost her position in the EPA. “It was hard to leave the…

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People of Albany United for Safe Energy — PAUSE Year in Review

2016 was a fairly busy year for the environment and for PAUSE. We began by joining with the Break Free Coalition in January to plan the nationally covered Break Free From Fossil Fuels march and rally here in Albany in May. More than 2500 people gathered in Lincoln Park from as far away as Wyoming to urge our elected representatives to stop investing in fossil fuels and to highlight the social injustice low income communities are forced to endure because…

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Tour Sustainable Materials Management Facilities

  On August 12, the Syracuse University Environmental Finance Center (SU-EFC), in collaboration with the New York State Association for Reduction, Reuse, and Recycling (NYSAR³), is sponsoring a special tour highlighting New York State sustainable materials management (SMM) operations including materials recovery facilities, composting facilities, anaerobic digestion systems, reuse centers, and more! At each facility, you will get a first-hand look at how discarded materials such as recyclables, construction debris, food scraps, textiles and more are diverted from the waste…

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Albany Solid Waste Problem Still Not Addressed Openly

by Tim Truscott   The month of June turned out to have some news related to the City of Albany’s solid waste disposal plans. It became known that the Mayor had created a Solid Waste Planning Committee which included her office, the landfill manager (Joe Giebelhaus), the Recycling Director (Frank Zeoli), a couple of the mayor’s friends on the Common Council and a representative of the City’s solid waste consultant (Barton & Loguidice). The committee had been meeting monthly for…

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Karner blue to get habitat in Saratoga Spa State Park

By Stephen Williams   Reporters who devote more than a semicolon and three dashes to environmental coverage find their inboxes full on Earth Day. The delete button and recycling bin are wonderful things, but a few items seem worth passing on. First, the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation is creating new Karner blue butterfly habitat at Saratoga Spa State Park. That’s nice. The dime-size blue butterflies are pretty, and outside of a handful of places in the…

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May 20 SPB Program to Feature Anaerobic Digestion and Composting of Organics

by Tim Truscott   ALBANY, NY: Save the Pine Bush will host a program at 7:00 PM on Wednesday evening, May 20 on composting and anaerobic digestion of organics, including food scraps. The guest speaker will be Gary Feinland, Environmental Program Specialist at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in Albany. New York State’s organics, including food scraps and yard trimmings are often disposed in landfills. NYSDEDC views these materials as resources and encourages managing them according to…

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Michael McLaughlin, Director of Research for Albany County Executive Dan McCoy Speaks to SPB

By Tom Ellis ALBANY, NY: Michael McLaughlin, the Director of Research for Albany County Executive Dan McCoy, was the SPB dinner speaker on May 21, filling in for McCoy who was attending the convention of the NYS Democratic Party.  He said he is involved in many of McCoy’s policies. Mr. McLaughlin said the Polystyrene ban signed by McCoy in December is a flawed law, the county executive is taking steps to strengthen it, McCoy wishes to extend it to all restaurants, the…

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Local Food Waste Update

by Sheree Cammer, Troy Compost volunteer Easily compostable organic waste is generated at the rate of an estimated 3/4 pound per person per day in the USA, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Crisis or opportunity? It’s up to us. Inter-Municipal Organics Wate Initiative A resolution approving the City of Troy joining the Inter-Municipal Organics Waste Initiative (IOWI) and endorsing the IOWI Application to NYSERDA’s Cleaner, Greener Communities Program Phase II was passed by unanimous vote by the Troy City…

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Letter to the Editor

  Dear SPB, I was concerned when I read “How to get guests to recycle” I thought we were supposed to wash washable recyclables before putting them in the recycling bin. Entertaining is limited for me at 87 years plus, but, I recall how exasperating party guests can be, especially when a guest has had too much booze and cigarettes. But, we cleaned up afterwards if it took till dawn. Most parties were Friday or Saturday. That left Sunday to…

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Waste-to-Energy Plant for Bethlehem?

by Tim Truscott   On April 25, the Bethlehem Town Board heard a proposal by a Kentucky-based firm called RST Technologies to develop a trash disposal facility in Glenmont on the tract of land along Route 144 between the Normans Kill and the PSEG electric generating facility. This site was formerly a dump for coal ash from the Niagara Mohawk generating station. Though the waste disposal technology is called “gasification”, the process nevertheless burns garbage, as does incineration. The process…

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Coeymens Debates Importing Garbage

by Tom Ellis   In 2005, SPB joined forces with the Citizens Environmental Coalition (CEC) and Selkirk-Ravena-Coeymans Against Pollution (SCRAP)  to successfully block the siting of a large regional landfill by the city of Albany on a 363-acre parcel Albany now owns in the town of Coeymans (ten miles south of Albany).  Now a new struggle is unfolding.  Coeymans has a law that bans solid waste imports into the town; it was enacted in 1995 after it became clear the city of Albany was serious in…

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Organic “Waste” Composting: A Random Local Update

by Sheree At RPI, there are at least two food “waste” projects. One is a prototype small methane digester. The other is a dumpster composter, which digests its load in 7 days. Unfortunately, hardly anyone seems to want the compost, which they have been giving away free. It would be ideal if a farmer picked up the material and composted it on site. As of 2009, Sodexho at RPI was going to try to compost campus food “waste” but I…

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Draft Solid Waste Management Plan Needs Closer Look & Changes

by Tom Ellis ALBANY: Early this year, the City of Albany’s solid waste consultant, Clough Harbour & Associates (CHA), completed a draft long range solid waste management plan for the Capital Region Solid Waste Management Partnership (the planning unit of Albany and the dozen or so municipalities who now dump trash in the Rapp Road landfill). CHA worked for 16 months with a 24-person “Steering Committee” appointed by Albany Mayor Gerald Jennings. CHA and the steering committee met fourteen times…

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ew Yorkers for Zero Waste Platform 2010

Download a PDF of the New Yorkers for Zero Waste Download a PDF of Jobs Fact Sheet Downlaod a PDF of the Waste Impacts on Climate Change The N.Y.S. Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has prepared a new State Solid Waste Plan that finally recognizes that materials in our waste stream are valuable and need to be preserved. We strongly endorse its preference for waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting over disposal. The less waste we dispose of the more…

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Regional Solid Waste Authority – Inevitable or will Citizens have a say?

by Tom Ellis   The City of Albany is preparing an update to its 1992 long-range solid waste management plan (SWMP) for the years 2011-2030. A year ago, Mayor Jennings appointed a Steering Committee (SC) to help draft it. The SC met monthly during the last year. During December, the city’s solid waste consultant, Clough Harbour & Associates (CHA), released a draft of the plan that it prepared supposedly with the cooperation of the SC, although it appeared to me…

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New York State Solid Waste Management Plan

by Barbara Warren   In January we expect the DRAFT State Solid Waste Management Plan to be released for public comment and hearings. Background you need to know: The Plan must be connected to Revised Solid Waste regulations but the DEC is still working on revising those and we have not seen them. The Plan must be connected to New Legislative authority and the state legislature will have to support and pass the needed revisions. Staffing levels at DEC are…

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Zero Waste or Waste Authority?

by Tom Ellis, Citizens’ Environmental Coalition Save the Pine Bush and friends won a partial victory in late February when Clough Harbour & Associates (CHA) revised the preliminary draft solid waste management plan it had issued in mid-December on behalf of a “steering committee” appointed by Albany Mayor Gerald Jennings. CHA faced considerable pressure from two steering committee members, SPB, Citizens’ Environmental Coalition, and many others. During the past fifteen months, the city of Albany has been developing a long-range…

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DEC’s Dump Hearing December 3, 2008

Trash Talkin’ January is one of the busiest times for cell phone recycling, because so many are replaced or upgraded during the holidays. Since your trusty cell contains not-so-nice materials like arsenic, lead and zinc, keeping it out of a landfill is a must. Even if you think one phone is too small to do much environmental harm, its power comes in volume – over 1.1 billion phones were sold in 2007 alone. Do Some Good A majority of cell…

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Expansion of the Landfill in the Pine Bush

ALBANY: The City of Albany has applied for a permit to expand the landfill in the Pine Bush. The battle has begun! On Wednesday, February 21 at 7:00 PM at the Polish Community Center (255 Washington Avenue Extension, corner of Rapp Road), the NYS Department of Environmental Conversation will hold a Public Scoping Session on the proposed expansion. The purpose of the hearing is to allow the public to submit comments on the scope of issues to be covered in…

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Albany County & Banning Styrofoam

Tom Ellis ALBANY, NY The Albany County Legislature is considering legislation that would extend the ban on the use of one-time use (take-out) food and beverage polystyrene foam containers from restaurants and eateries with fifteen or more establishments in the US (enacted three years ago) to all restaurants and eateries in the county. A public hearing was held on November 22 at which the polystyrene industry sent eight or nine representatives who spoke in opposition to the proposed law. Three…

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Podcasts

Subscribe to "Dinner with Save the Pine Bush" on iTunes! Table of Contents Dan Van Riper from albanyweblog.com speaks about The Proposed Sewage Treatment Plant in Lincoln Park, May 16, 2019 Anne Pope, Rev Sam Johnson and Stephanie Woodard speak about The Rapp Road Historical Association, January 16, 2019 Ward Stone, Former NYS Wildlife Pathologist and Keith Schue speak about Health Effects of the ANSWERS Plant Pollution and The Proposed Sheridan Hollow Gas-Fired Power Power Plant, February 20, 2019 Bruce Campbell Canadian author speaks about…

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Comments on the Solid Waste Management Plan by Mike Kernan

Michael J. Kernan was appointed to the Solid Waste Management Plan as a representative of CANA – the Council of Albany Neighborhoods. Below is an edited version of the comments he summited on the Steering Committee (SC) SWMP Preliminary Report* Preliminary Report Conclusions (PR) 1. Public authority vs formal consortium I disagree with the assumption that a “Regional Solid Waste Management Authority (RSWMA)…is critical to successful implementation of the SWMP.” There is no need for a “public authority” to gather…

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City Can’t Decide!

by Sally Cummings Recycling Paper Environmental Savings For every ton of paper recycled, we ….. Save 463 gallons of oil. Save 7,000 gallons of water. Make 60 pounds less of air pollution. Save 3 cubic yards of landfill space Save 4,100 kilowatt hours of neergy Save 17 trees Reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 850 pounds per year! Litter Facts: It takes paper up to one year to decompose. Science Writer Cy Tymony Reveals 12 “Sneaky Re-uses” For Common Toys After…

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Roads in the Pine Bush – John Poorman Speaks about the CDTC

by Lynne Jackson ALBANY: John Poorman, Executive Director of the Capital District Regional Planning Commission spoke at the July SPB vegetarian/vegan lasagna dinner. Mr. Poorman began by describing what the Capital District Regional Planning Commission (CDTC) is. The CDTC is the designated “Metropolitan Planning Organization” (MPO) for four counties, Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady. Under federal law, the CDTC’s responsibilities are to provide a forum to discuss transportation needs and develop transportation plans in the context of social, economic and…

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Rethink Plans for Disposal Facility

By Hank Pellissier, hpellissier@baycitizen.org San Francisco’s garbage dump, the Recology San Francisco Solid Waste Transfer and Recycling Center, does not throw out much trash. The majority of its rubbish gets productively recycled, at the transfer station at 501 Tunnel Avenue or the Pier 96 sorting facility. Recology, an employee-owned company, oversees the complex operation. Head of the Class -San Francisco diverts 77 percent of its waste, the best landfill-avoidance rate for any large city in the United States. The goal…

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Rethink Plans for Disposal Facility

Congratulations to Tom Ellis for his excellent letter-to-the-editor which appeared in Thursday’s Times Union (12/30/10) concerning the SWMP plan, the proposed solid waste authority and the possibility of an incinerator being constrducted in the area. The letter is shown below. In addition to the points Tom made in his letter, it should be mentioned that shifting Albany’s landfill debt to a solid waste authority will not relieve Albany taxpayers from the obligations of that debt. Instead of paying the City…

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How Can We Reverse the Tide of Trump’s Plan to Eliminate the U.S. EPA? – Part Two

by Hugh Johnson Judith Enck, former EPA Regional Director of New York State’s Region II, spoke at the SPB dinner in June; Part One of her speech was published in the Aug/Sept newsletter; here is Part Two: ALBANY. NY: On Day 68, Trump actually traveled to the EPA Headquarters to announce a reduction in the EPA Clear Acts. Coal miners were invited to attend. Judith stated, “If Trump had any real interest in coal miner’s careers, he would advocate for…

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