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One Successful Way to Reduce Garbage and Increase Recycling
By John McNamara On Thursday, Feb. 12, John McNamara made a presentation to the Brookhaven Town Board. The town landfill is scheduled to close in 2028 and he wanted to provide information to help the town get ready. The Town of Southold, also on Long Island, reduced the amount of garbage generated by residents and…
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Dutchess County Waste Reduction and Diversion Update
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,…
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A New Struggle: PFAS Contaminated Soil Remediation Should Not Pollute the Environment and Harm Residents’ Health
March 15, 2026 By Tracy Frisch Clean Air Action Network of Glens Falls (CAAN) is working with the grassroots group, The Fort Stops PFAS, to tackle a new threat which would have disastrous consequences for the Upper Hudson Valley. A feature article just published in the national rural news service Barn Raiser, “Small Towns Say…
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Seneca Lake Guardian on the Urgent Need to Close Seneca Meadows, the Largest Landfill in New York State
By Yvonne Taylor The simple truth is this: New York will never achieve zero waste unless we act boldly and close Seneca Meadows – the largest landfill in the state – once and for all. Right now, trash from 47 counties is trucked into the Finger Lakes, burdening our community with documented health harms including…
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Update From Suffolk County –The Brookhaven Town Landfill
By John McNamara The Brookhaven Landfill Action And Remediation Group (BLARG) has been meeting for the past six years to advocate for the closing of the Brookhaven Landfill. This landfill is located in an environmental justice community (North Bellport) that has suffered from its effects since 1972: high rates of asthma and lower life expectancy.…
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Sullivan County Fends Off Trash Incinerator — At Least For Now
By Rebekah Creshkoff, Sustainable Sullivan With 100 people in the crowd, it was standing room only at a town hall in Sullivan County late last September. The goal of the meeting was to alert citizens to the looming danger of a “waste to energy” incinerator proposed by some legislators as the silver-bullet solution to the…
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Introducing New York River Watch
New York River Watch, formerly the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers Leachate Collaborative, is a new organization that embraces a holistic approach to protecting New York’s rivers. Our team brings nearly fifty (50) years of experience protecting the Hudson River and its tributaries—a legacy of dedication poured into this work. The Leachate Loophole campaign remains our…
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A Call to Rethink the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Act (PRRIA)
Zero Waste Ithaca has published a new resource webpage on New York’s proposed packaging EPR bill, PRRIA (S1464/A1749). In plain language, the page explains why the bill’s structure matters. As written, PRIA can (1) concentrate control in a producer-run organization, (2) limit public transparency, and (3) keep plastics on a recycling-first track while leaving community reuse like bring-your-own containers (BYO) unsupported. The…
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Zero Waste New York — On the Move
Zero Waste New York (ZWNY) came together through local grassroots groups fighting polluting solid waste facilities to share resources and provide support. We have transitioned to a vibrant statewide coalition of grassroots community and regional groups working to transition from the state’s archaic framework that rubber stamps polluting incinerators and landfills to an environmentally sustainable…
We’re Building
the Community of
Zero Wasters
in New York State!
Zero Waste New York is a state-wide organization working to eliminate the state’s use of incineration and reduce the need for landfills and waste exports through zero waste strategies.