Materials Management
Materials Management Solutions
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Carbon-sequestering concrete, for example using pozzolan, can be used at competitive prices. We can use materials such as mass timber, cross laminated timber, hemp lime and wood fiber insulation. Building materials with high recycled content are also preferable.
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A rich primary source of materials for reuse, remanufacture and recycling, with substantial opportunity for increased waste diversion in the Valley.
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Refrigerants are powerful greenhouse gases. We can transition to climate-friendly refrigerants, enhance leak monitoring and prevent end-of-life emissions.
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Expand the pilot Ulster County Zero Waste Implementation Plan to be a regional initiative to maximize economies of scale and knowledge sharing. Nurture the Repair Café of the Hudson Valley and Catskills. Promote all repair and reuse businesses.
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NYS law requires that as of January 1, 2022, large generators of food scraps are required to donate excess edible food and recycle all remaining food scraps if they are located within 25miles of an organics recycler; an estimated 10 anaerobic digesters distributed through the Hudson Valley would serve this purpose.
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Develop a cross-industry working group to assess opportunities for circular economy initiatives in the Hudson Valley starting functional models in our region, including forest products and textiles. Introduce the analytic tool Circulytics to Hudson Valley industries beginning with the largest and most materials intensive businesses.
Regional Strategies
Making, moving and disposing of materials is fully 12% of our climate footprint. The waste management and recycling system was designed in the last century. It is complex and resistant to major change. What is needed is a redesign of the system to make reuse and recycling the norm. This includes new and different systems for diverting materials, and investment in reuse and recycling based industries. New York City has created a Circular City strategy that begins with city procurement and policy, and special catalytic projects like taking apart a full city block and creating a circular economy science park on the site. The Hudson Valley has laid groundwork for similar strategies and is poised to implement them, with coordination among the counties, communities, businesses and others with creative ideas.
County Resource Recovery Agencies should establish policies, and specifically redesign their systems, to phase out the transportation of waste outside the region, and work together on a regional strategic planning process to make circularity the new normal through systemic reuse, up-cycling, recycling and related manufacturing, and value-added approaches, and aiming to develop materials markets and reuse strategies that serve the region in a coordinated manner. This planning can be informed by New York City’s Circular Economy strategy as a source of guidance. That strategy should include a review of options for making the management of materials net energy positive, carbon sequestering and renewably powered.
Local governments, community organizations and businesses working to grow the circular economy actively participate in that process, in order to identify possibilities for public-private partnership and leveraging resources, for example to build decentralized collection infrastructure.
NYSERDA should fast-track an initiative to assess the refrigerant management practices of all the HVAC contractors it employs in its Clean Heating and Cooling Program, providing training for best practices and penalties for negligence.
The NYS Office of Climate Change should work closely with innovative community projects such as the Repair Cafés and New Yorkers for Cool Refrigerant Management, to identify new ways to incentivize innovative materials management activities such as low- to no-cost refrigerant-containing appliance collection programs and repair skill training.
Nongovernmental organizations working on Extended Producer Responsibility (plastics, fashion, refrigerants) should consider a coordinated strategy for policymaking across the specialties.
This coalition will facilitate the creation of a Circular Economy Strategic Plan in collaboration with these stakeholders, beginning with a Summit in September 2024.
Who Cares? A Partial List of Stakeholders:
Circular City Week
https://www.circularcityweek.org
Ellen MacArthur Foundation
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org
Hudson Valley Biogas
New Yorkers for Cool Refrigerant Management
NYS Association for Reduction, Reuse, Recycle (NYSARR)