Stony Brook University named Michael E. White, an adjunct faculty lecturer in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, the interim director of the Waste Reduction and Management Institute (WRMI) on Thursday, Nov. 21.
White has worked to reduce Long Island’s waste for years as an attorney specializing in environmental law and as a project consultant for Winter Bros. Waste Management Systems Long Island.
“Michael was instrumental in helping Babylon form and implement its ground-breaking Commercial Garbage District, which almost 30 years later still is an environmental asset that features the lowest cost commercial waste processing and disposal on Long Island. I have no doubt that Michael will excel in this position,” Rich Schaffer, the town supervisor of Babylon, said in a press release.
In his new position at WRMI, White’s main goal is to develop approaches that address the ongoing solid waste management crisis on Long Island, N.Y.
Long Island suffers from a lack of trash disposal capacity, producing 7,000 tons of trash per day while its Waste-to-Energy (WTE) facilities only burn five tons per day. The unburned waste must be put in landfills or sent to a different location.
“There’s not enough capacity for these plants to handle [all the incoming waste],” White said. “That waste is compressed into bales and sent by truck upstate or [to] states west of Long Island.”
Due to the Long Island Landfill Law banning landfills that could contaminate Long Island’s groundwater, there are only two landfills on Long Island: the Brookhaven landfill and the Babylon landfill. According to White, the Brookhaven landfill is set to close its doors by the end of this year.
“What are we going to do about all the waste we generate? Are we going to keep incinerating it? Where is the ash going? Are we not incinerating it? If we don’t have the space for it then we’ll have to send it away,” Kaitlin Willig Giglio, the assistant director of the Marine Conservation and Policy Program in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, said.
Much of the waste that Long Island’s landfills can’t hold is shipped upstate or out of state, mostly by truck. To offset emissions that traffic and other strains shipping by truck can cause, WRMI is looking into shipping more waste by train.
“One railcar [can hold] five trucks [worth of trash]. So that’s five trucks off the road,” White said.
Under White, WRMI is combating this crisis through research, cooperation with local legislatives and educating Long Island residents about the importance of reducing waste.
“The importance of the institute is to bring the work of the University to solve the problems of the community,” White said.
Coinciding with White’s appointment, New York State awarded WRMI a $250,000 grant to develop a plan to address the crisis. WRMI used this grant to establish four Technical Working Groups: WTE facility research, WTE Ash Reduction and Management, Construction and Demolition Debris Management and Transportation of Waste Off Long Island.
“We are working with all 13 towns [of Long Island] and County Executive Ed Romaine to connect the institute with the towns and help them through the solid waste management crisis,” White said.
As part of the grant, WRMI is researching the effects of closing the Brookhaven landfill.
“This study is looking into the effects of the Brookhaven national landfill’s closure. We are looking at all the alternative ways to address [the excess of trash],” Giglio said.
