Reimagining Waste: From Trash to Valuable Resources

Opponents of a proposed waste-to-energy facility in Sullivan County say the debate over trash disposal is about more than what happens to garbage — it’s about the county’s long-term environmental and public health future.

Organizers of a Waste Minimization Workshop this week at SUNY Sullivan say they want to move the conversation beyond opposition to incineration and toward alternatives focused on reuse, repair and composting.

Finger Lakes Reuse says it is diverting millions of pounds of materials from landfills each year while expanding job training and reuse infrastructure across central New York, according to its founder and executive director Diane Cohen.

“Our mission is to enhance community, economy, and environment through reuse,” Cohen said. “We’re a nonprofit organization that got started on request of our county which wanted to… they had plans for a reuse center, but they didn’t really have the wherewithal to do it themselves. They wanted an independent partner. And so we formed Finger Lakes Reuse.”

She said the organization was established as a 501(c)(3) to build a scalable waste reduction model. Over time, it has expanded its operations, workforce and material recovery capacity.

“We’re employing 93 people and we provide job training opportunities,” Cohen said. “We really wanted to develop a way that we can keep materials out of the landfill in a way that is also creating fair work opportunities for people.”

Cohen said the organization is currently diverting roughly 3 million pounds of material annually, though she noted she did not have exact conversions available during the interview.

A central focus of Finger Lakes Reuse, she said, is reframing discarded goods as valuable resources.

“We initially we had no idea and I still think the general public and no one really understands how much value is in our waste,” Cohen said. “We have this robust system of carting our waste away and out of sight, out of mind, but the solutions, the end point where that waste goes is not a good solution.”

She added: “We think of waste as a resource to be mined rather than garbage to be disposed of.”

The nonprofit operates reuse centers that collect and resell building materials, furniture, clothing, electronics and household goods. Cohen said furniture and household items in particular move quickly through the system. Cohen said the organization also runs deconstruction services and electronics repair and refurbishment programs as part of a broader effort to extend the life of materials.

On the policy debate over waste-to-energy incineration, Cohen expressed skepticism, arguing that reuse systems capture more value while avoiding downstream environmental impacts.

“I learned that if you incinerate a ton of waste, you still have 20% of the material in the form of ash, so that still needs to be landfilled,” she said. “It doesn’t really take the place of a landfill.”

Cohen said she believes communities should invest instead in systems that sort and recover usable materials before disposal.

“We’re trying to figure out how to better filter out what valuable and marketable materials are… and bring them back into marketplace instead of just pulling them all in a lump and either incinerating or burying them,” she said.

Looking ahead to her presentation at SUNY Sullivan, Cohen said she hopes local leaders consider reuse as part of a broader economic and workforce development strategy.

“I think at the end of the day, everyone’s a stakeholder in the reuse world because we all have material that we need and need to get rid of,” she said. “It’s not just about waste reduction, it also has community building, opportunity building, economic opportunity, workforce opportunity.”

She encouraged communities to identify partners, spaces and funding pathways to build local reuse networks.

“Where is the place that larger volumes of materials could be staged… and brought back into marketplace?” she said. “That type of network is something I’m really interested in helping build.”

Cohen said she also sees growing recognition among state regulators of reuse as part of waste management strategy, but believes more investment is needed to scale it.

“We started with seven employees in a 7,000 square foot building,” she said. “Eighteen years later, we’ve got about 75,000 square feet and 93 employees, and this is just something that needs to be continued to be built upon.”

Image: Participants at Finger Lakes ReUse DeNailing Day in June 2025, where they processed 446 board feet of dimensional lumber and 70 square feet of flooring. The materials were sent the Ithaca ReUse Center for community projects. (Finger Lakes ReUse).