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 elevated cancer risks, respiratory illness, and pregnancy complications. 

At the same time, the State’s own Solid Waste Management Plan calls for reducing landfill dependence and treating disposal as a last resort. Expanding Seneca Meadows directly contradicts those goals. “Zero waste” cannot remain a slogan. It must mean making the hard decisions that actually force us to reduce waste, starting with ending our reliance on mega-landfills like Seneca Meadows, Inc.

There are good faith concerns about where the trash will go if we shut down Seneca Meadows – incinerators are no better, for example, which is why Seneca Lake Guardian secured a ban on building new incinerators in the Finger Lakes watershed in 2019. 

But “where will the garbage go” is the wrong question altogether. There is sufficient landfill capacity in the state to temporarily meet New York’s landfilling needs even if SMI closes. With 219 million cubic yards of landfill airspace available in New York, we can, and should, take this opportunity to turn New York’s current solid waste problem around by maximizing our political capital, not punting and encouraging the status quo – thereby enabling the state to keep doing what it’s been doing and failing to find a truly zero waste solution. The Finger Lakes refuses to be a sacrifice zone any longer just so we as a state can avoid confronting our failure to reduce waste statewide.

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result — in this case, supporting and expanding endless landfills — is the very definition of insanity. We believe New York can and must move toward a circular economy that creates more jobs, reduces climate pollution, and protects frontline communities. Closing Seneca Meadows as demanded by current law is not only feasible, but a necessary first step toward aligning state policy with environmental justice and climate commitments. 

Learn more at senecalakeguardian.org, read our SMI fact sheet, or contact us at senecalakeguardian@gmail.com to get involved.