Materials Management

Materials Management Solutions

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

https://www.hvbiogas.org

New Yorkers for Cool Refrigerant Management

https://www.ny4cool.org 

NYS Association for Reduction, Reuse, Recycle (NYSARR)

https://www.nysar3.org