Long Island Regional Planning Council to Address Long Island’s LIRPC Meeting to Focus on Solid Waste Management Challenges

·      Feb. 27 LIRPC Meeting to Focus on Solid Waste Management Challenges

·      How Can Long Island Avert a Looming Crisis?

·      LIRPC to Take on Leadership Role in Finding Solutions

 Syosset, NY – Feb. 26, 2020 – Long Island’s garbage goes “away.” From Floral Park to Montauk, residents and business owners see their garbage get taken away every day, not realizing we face a looming crisis on where waste goes and how it gets there. We generate more and more waste every year and face ever-increasing costs to manage waste. Additionally, disposal capacity on Long Island is shrinking. Long Island municipalities and the solid waste industry have worked together to identify ways to improve recycling and dispose of millions of tons of waste generated on Long Island every year. The solution is not cheap and will not be easy. On any given day, hundreds of trucks travel up and down Long Island streets collecting waste and recyclables produced by residents, as well as waste from commercial and institutional generators. What is not recycled, may go to one of Long Island’s four energy-from-waste facilities, with what remains being transported off Long Island to off-Island disposal facilities. That means tens of thousands of tractor-trailer loads of waste a year traveling over the congested and aging highway and bridge infrastructure. Advancing the Sustainable Strategies for Long Island 2035, the Long Island Regional Planning Council (LIRPC), as the regional planning body representing Nassau and Suffolk counties, is taking a leading role to develop solutions. On Thursday, Feb. 27, LIRPC will host a presentation "Long Island Solid Waste Management Challenges" followed by a panel discussion with experts to update Long Islanders on this issue of regional concern and to set the path to addressing it. The presentation and panel will begin at 10 a.m. and take place at 300 Broadhollow Road, Melville, NY 11747 (in the building’s lower level).

“The LIRPC will advance the Long Island Solid Waste Leadership Council (LISWLC) created by Region 1 of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Long Island municipalities and the solid waste industry,” said LIRPC Chairman John Cameron. “Establishing a regional waste management entity is among the proposed actions in our Long Island 2035 Regional Comprehensive Sustainability Plan.” Michael E. White, LIRPC Vice Chairman, will chair a new subcommittee of the LIRPC to lead the LISWLC. Describing the looming crisis, White said, “The amount of waste generated on Long Island is ever-increasing. The Brookhaven landfill is set to close in 2024, at which time we must have an alternative to transport and dispose of approximately 5.2 million pounds a day of additional waste off Long Island.” “It is imperative that the LISWLC initiative be completed, and bringing this to the LIRPC will assure that the work in progress becomes a final work product,” said Richard Guardino, LIRPC Executive Director. “This will inform the NYSDEC as it prepares the next statewide Solid Waste Management Plan and guide decision-makers on the development and implementation of local solid waste management plans.”

 The Feb. 27 panel will feature leading experts:

·      Carrie Meek-Gallagher – NYSDEC Regional Director

·      Michael E. White – LIRPC Vice Chairman

·      Will Flower – Winters Bros. Recycling

·      Matt Miner and Kevin Johnston – Town of Brookhaven

·      Richard Sandner – Covanta Energy

·      Steve Changaris – National Waste & Recycling Association

 The Long Island Solid Waste Leadership Council comprises municipal and solid waste industry experts working with the NYSDEC to identify problems, establish goals and develop strategies to solve those problems.

 About Long Island Regional Planning Council

 The Long Island Regional Planning Council comprises public and private sector leaders who are experienced and knowledgeable in business, environment, transportation and planning. Its main goal is to educate Long Island officials, stakeholders and residents on key issues affecting the quality of life in the region, and it proposes immediate and long-term strategies and solutions. The Council actively identifies and advocates for “Projects of Regional Significance.”

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