About the Dutchess County Waste Reduction and Diversion Study
In 2024, Mothers Out Front conducted a countywide campaign to close the Dutchess County incinerator in Poughkeepsie. We advocated for a zero waste approach to waste management, one that centers composting yard waste and food scraps, refurbishing and repair, building deconstruction, recycling and more. Mike Ewall, Founder and Director of Energy Justice Network, and Neil Seldman, co-founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and former Director of the Waste to Wealth Initiative, provided their guidance and expertise throughout the campaign. We gathered nearly 900 petition signatures, requesting that Dutchess County design and implement strategies for a future without incineration. As a result, the County Legislature allocated $75,000 for a Waste Reduction and Diversion Study (Study).
Resource Recycling Systems (RRS) was chosen to conduct the Study, the contract between the County and RRS was signed in August of 2025 and the Study is underway. We believe that we must continue to engage with the County and RRS to ensure an approach to waste reduction and diversion that is based on best practices in waste management, zero waste principles, and the creation of a circular economy. Regarding the Project Plan for the Study, Mothers Out Front expressed two primary concerns: lack of citizen engagement, and the absence of consideration for incineration’s impact on public health.
Westchester County’s Waste Reduction Study Doesn’t Move the Needle Toward Zero Waste
By Courtney Williams
Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities has finally released their long awaited “Waste Reduction Study.” As feared it seems to have been used as a tactic to delay taking real action by studying a problem that other communities have already solved.
Background: WASS had pushed for two years for the county to hire a Certified Zero Waste Consultant to work with the county to create a roadmap to Zero Waste that ended reliance on trash incineration. Instead the county got funding to do a “Waste Reduction Study” with no set goal, minimal public outreach, little chance for public input, and
Findings: While the study acknowledges the need to educate the public on diversion programs and the need to advance food scraps recycling, the main alternatives to incineration that they provide are pyrolysis, gasification, landfilling, and anaerobic digestion! No mention of Zero Waste as the alternative!
Sadly the $90,000 in taxpayer dollars seems to have been used primarily to paper over the environmental racism of burning wealthy Westchester’s garbage in an environmental justice community. Repeatedly the county claims to have no power over the incinerator because it is ‘privately operated,’ ignoring the fact it is owned by the Westchester County Industrial Development Agency and the contract with WIN-Waste to run it is approved by the Westchester County Board of Legislators, and paid for with tax-payer dollars.
WASS was disappointed in the study, but not surprised. We intend to use the recommendations to push for expansion of food scraps recycling, more public education on reducing waste, and increased advocacy by the county for state-wide solutions to the waste crisis.
To learn more about the study, join WASS at their March Zero Waste Task Force meeting Wednesday 3/18 at 7:30pm on Zoom. Register at wasspeekskill.org/meeting
To learn more about the study join WASS at their March Zero Waste Task Force meeting Wednesday 3/18 at 7:30pm on Zoom. Register at wasspeekskill.org/meeting
WASS is an alliance of community organizations from Westchester County working to close Wheelabrator/WIN-Waste incinerator in Peekskill where the county’s trash is burned.
The County’s Response To Our Concerns
In response to our concerns and the concerns of the Dutchess County Environmental Management Council, Dutchess County leadership has requested that the consultant add a virtual public presentation of the Study’s findings, followed by an open public comment period. At the close of the public comment period, the comments received will be combined with the Study and submitted to the County Legislature for action. Mothers Out Front Dutchess will encourage Conservation Advisory Committee members as well as the general public to engage with the Study through this public presentation and comment process. In addition, we will continue to educate our County Legislature and lobby for new waste management practices and the closure of the County incinerator.
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