Sullivan County Legislature Approves Solid Waste Management Plan. What’s Next?

The Sullivan County Legislature approved its first solid waste management plan in more than three decades in an 8-1 vote on August 21. District 5 Legislator Catherine Scott was the only legislator who voted against the plan. Now, the plan heads to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for final approval.

Here’s what else you need to know.

What exactly is a Solid Waste Management Plan?

In July 2024, Sullivan County unveiled its first local solid waste management plan in more than 30 years. The last plan was developed in 1991. The 470-page document is a 10-year proposal for how the county hopes to manage its trash, from how to enforce recycling protocols to building a waste-to-energy facility.

Developed by the consultant group Cornerstone Engineering and Geology, the waste plan details how the county’s trash has grown over the decades and is expected to keep climbing. Between 2023 and 2033, Sullivan County projects its population to soar more than 20,000 residents, adding more than 12,000 tonnes of trash annually according to the plan.

How has Sullivan County’s trash changed over the years?

While Sullivan County has long managed an influx of more than 200,000 residents during the summer, a sharp increase in development following the COVID pandemic boom and shifting recycling and solid waste regulations have accelerated the county’s trash tonnage: the county’s garbage to Seneca Meadows doubled from 50,000 to 100,000 tons over the last 15 years, according to Public Works Commissioner Edward McAndrew.

But there are other factors beyond growing trash shaping the county’s plans forward.

Sullivan County currently sends its municipal solid waste out to Seneca Meadows, the state’s 350-acre landfill, but that’s set to expire at the end of 2025. It is unclear if Seneca Meadows will remain open.

Local haulers have also pushed back against the county’s increased tipping fees – the cost a hauler pays to dump waste at a transfer station or facility. Sullivan County bumped up its tipping fee from $120 a ton to $136.50 a ton in January 2025. The county had planned to increase it to $150 on July 1, but after significant pushback from haulers, the county kept it at its current rate.

READ: Future of Sullivan County’s Trash in Limbo

Did the Sullivan County Legislature just approve building a waste-to-energy facility?

No, but it’s a proposal Sullivan County legislators are seriously considering.

While the county legislature approved the local solid waste management plan, Communications Director Dan Hust told Radio Catskill that final approval for a waste-to-energy facility is a separate process.

“We are not obligated in any way to do anything further with that. The DEC just wants to know what we are looking at with solid waste,” said Hust.

Waste-to-energy facilities use a form of incineration that creates energy by mass burning waste and converting it into heat and electricity. Over the past year, community members and representatives from Sustainable Sullivan, a local grassroots environmental group, have pushed back against the proposal at county legislative meetings. Experts from the Natural Resources Defense Council have warned that these facilities are greenwashing efforts that could release toxic products like residual ash into the region’s water and food systems.

Sustainable Sullivan representative Eric Feinblatt worries that the proposed facility would change the community’s relationship to waste.

“What the incinerator does is steer us towards maximizing our waste,” said Feinblatt. “Basically it’s saying shove everything in. The more that you shove in, the more economically viable… the less you shove in, the less economically viable.”

ReWorld is one waste management vendor whose expressed interest in developing the waste-to-energy facility. Sullivan County Deputy Commissioner Mark Witkowski said at the August 14 public works committee meeting that other companies had expressed interest but to assist with other aspects of the project such as engineering and treating PFAs.

What happens next?

Sullivan County’s local solid waste management plan now heads to the DEC for final approval. The DEC has 30 days to formally approve the plan.

The Sullivan County Department of Public Works has also issued a draft RFP for the waste-to-energy facility, with an August 22 deadline for public written comments. The department will then review the comments and aims to issue a final RFP in September.

Image: Single stream recycling facility at the Monticello Transfer Station in Monticello, N.Y. (Photo Credit: Kimberly Izar)