CATSKILL — Greene County is set to move forward with a planned new recycling center in Catskill that would establish the first single-stream recycling site in the county.
During a special Public Works Committee meeting Monday night, the Greene County Legislature voted unanimously to establish a capital project for the Catskill recycling station, with the county earmarking $2,050,000 for the project
The Legislature called a special committee meeting Monday to approve the project’s resolution in advance of a vote by the full Legislature on Wednesday. “Because of the way the calendar fell, we already had our Public Works Committee meeting,” Greene County Administrator Shaun Groden said.
“Because we had the bids come in and we wanted to award it and get things moving, we held a second meeting this month rather than waiting until next month.
” During Monday’s meeting, the committee also approved a $1,418,000 bid from the Jersen Construction Group in Waterford to serve as the general contractor for the recycling center project and $231,000 from DLC Electric in Troy to serve as the electrical contractor for the project.
The planned recycling center would provide the county with a site that will streamline Greene’s recycling process.
“That’s going to be the first single-stream recycling center for us,” Greene County Legislature Chairman Patrick Linger said after Monday’s meeting.
The county has transfer stations in Catskill, Hunter, Coxsackie and Windham. When the Catskill recycling site is established, trash haulers will be able to deliver recyclables to the new center without necessitating a second trip to an offsite recycling center.
“Right now we don’t handle single-stream,” Groden said Tuesday. “Our four transfer stations now, if you go to them as a citizen, you are source-separating yourself. You put your glass in the glass bin and your paper in the paper bin. That will continue for those people that don’t have a contract with a County Waste or a Superior.
“The haulers don’t have a place to go to in the county, so when that truck comes down the street, half of the truck is garbage and half of the truck is combined with paper, tin and plastic,” Groden said. “They have to take that someplace else. Now they can bring it here for the haulers to take single-stream.
We’ve found a facility outside of Albany where all of that single-stream will be taken to and they have the machinery to separate plastic one way and glass will go another way and it’ll all be sorted and then recycled on the secondary markets.
” During Monday’s committee meeting, the Legislature also approved an extension of services to Jersen in the amount of $109,958 to complete necessary plumbing work for the county’s reconstruction of the Coxsackie Transfer Station.
The planned Catskill recycling center is expected to improve efficiency that would provide environmental benefits to the county. “This is pretty big and it’s a good thing for us to get into,” Groden said of the project.
“It’s very environmentally conscious and it’ll help the haulers maintain their pricing, because they will have less expense to bring single-stream to a location that’s not so far away. It further underscores our goal of keeping things environmentally friendly.”