News

Two matters raised during and after the community forum on January 10 on the topic "Going Green Without Guilt" deserve a follow-up.

First, an attendee at the meeting stated strongly that the villages of Great Neck Estates and Kings Point are not complying with the recycling law because their carters are tossing sorted and unsorted garbage into their trucks together.

The Record phoned both mayors to find out whether this perception is correct. Both Mayor Michael Kalnick and Mayor David Fox understood how the impression was formed, but both were firm that their respective villages are recycling and complying with the law. According to Mayor Fox, the village is paying their carter to sort the collected garbage back at their facility. The village and the pick-up service agreed that since many residents were not complying with or sorting their garbage correctly, it was more cost efficient to simply sort it at the carter's facility. Deputy Mayor William Warner said that he would try to clear the way for this reporter to visit the facility. Stay tuned.

Mayor Kalnick said, "We are paying for our carter to sort it, so we expect to get the service we're paying for."

The other question raised after the meeting had to do with the fate of electronic waste that is being collected by the Town of North Hempstead. We spoke with Michael Engleman, the executive director of the town's Solid Waste Management Authority. According to Mr. Engleman the business of recycling has grown exponentially in the last 10 years as companies become more efficient in dismantling, refurbishing or reusing components in electronics through advanced technologies. Now these companies are competing for our more valuable trash.

The town sends collected electronics by truck to Electronic Recycling Technologies, LLC located in Buffalo, N.Y. This company is registered with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and must be in compliance with New York State rules and regulations on the safe handling of toxic components to maintain that status.

Who knew that computers contain gold, silver, palladium, copper, lead, mercury, zinc, nickel, steel and aluminum, all of which if removed, can be re-used.

The glass from tubes and monitors is shipped to a company in Montreal that specializes in this niche of the recycling market.

Asian markets are increasingly vying for plastics and newspapers for recycling purposes.

The town is preparing bidding documents as their contracts with recycling companies are up for grabs this year. Currently, the town pays for electronics to be carted away. If reclaimed recyclables have become more lucrative, we asked why the town is not being paid for its electronic waste.

According to Mr. Engleman, the electronic waste currently collected contains many cast-offs that are not valuable and essentially they off-set the trash that is more valuable. He expressed hope that somewhere down the line, this balance may change.

For now, he says, "We collect electronic waste because we think it's the right thing to do."

We also asked why the S.T.O.P. program to collect toxic materials is limited to four times a year. Mr. Engleman says that handling these materials is very complicated requiring coordination with various governmental agencies and that while the town would like to move to six collections a year, it is just too expensive to expand the service now. The next date for dropping off hazardous household items is April 21. For more information, call 767-4600.