Sullivan County, NY Legislative Findings

Section 27-0106 of the Environmental Conservation Law defines the state's solid waste management policy, and § 27-0107 of such law sets forth the purpose and scope of local solid waste management plans.

Section 226-b of the County Law provides in part that a county may appropriate and expend such sums to "provide for the separation, collection and management of solid waste in such county and for that purpose may acquire, construct, operate and maintain solid waste management facilities."

Section 120-aa of the General Municipal Law provides in part that in accordance with the state policy on solid waste management, a municipality adopt, on or before September 1, 1992, a local law to require source separation and segregation of recyclable or reusable materials from solid waste.

Section A7-4 of the Sullivan County Administrative Code provides that the Commissioner of Public Works shall have the power to formulate and implement a program for the collection and sanitary disposal of solid waste.

[Amended 5-20-1999 by L.L. No. 4-1999]

The Sullivan County Legislature assumed the lead role in examining all alternatives for the disposal of solid waste within Sullivan County, and the County Legislature did also accept the responsibility of developing the most cost effective and environmentally safe solution for the disposal of solid waste in Sullivan County.

The Public Works Committee has recommended a county-wide recycling program which shall require the source separation of various recyclable components of the solid waste stream. It is intended that an expanded recycling program of additional materials shall be initiated as the County of Sullivan gains experience and formalizes its recycling procedures.

[Amended 5-20-1999 by L.L. No. 4-1999]

The County of Sullivan's goal is to reuse and to recycle materials such as paper, glass, yard wastes, metals, plastics and other recyclable materials which can be separated from nonrecyclable wastes at the source, i.e., at the residence or at the nonresidence where the waste is created. Such reduction and recycling of solid waste is in keeping with the expressed policy of the State of New York to save landfill space, reduce waste disposal problems and to conserve our precious natural resources.

Mandatory recycling will be a new challenge to the residents of Sullivan County, one to be learned and to be improved upon. Education, participation and cooperation are the elements of a successful recycling program, and when the county has a successful recycling program operating, it will be a keystone in the management of the Sullivan County Solid Waste Management Plan. The Sullivan County Solid Waste Advisory Board is an integral part of the educational and monitoring process of the program.

In connection with the effort by the County of Sullivan to recycle a substantial component of its solid waste stream, the County of Sullivan may also wish to accept recyclables that are generated from outside of the county for the purposes of marketing the same and obtaining the income generated thereby. Sullivan County recognizes that, as an inevitable adjunct to accepting recyclables that are generated outside of the County of Sullivan, a certain small percentage of that which is brought into the County of Sullivan may actually be nonrecyclable. The benefit to Sullivan County of the income generated by accepting recyclables from outside of Sullivan County warrants the toleration of the small percentage of nonrecyclables that inevitably accompany recyclables (e.g., a bottle coated in a substance rendering a bottle nonrecyclable, a nonrecyclable bottle or jar cap, etc.).

The solid waste fee authorized by New York State County Law §§ 226-b and 266 and New York State Real Property Tax Law § 1501 is an access fee and is not a tax. However, said fee shall be collected, enforced and corrected, as necessary, at the same time and in the same manner as a real property tax. It is the intention of the Sullivan County Legislature that the fee be billed to property owners simultaneously with the annual County/town tax levy, on or about January 1 of each year, and as such, shall constitute a real property lien on the affected real property when levied, along with the rest of the tax bill. The solid waste fee shall be collected initially by the local collector as part and parcel of the tax bill and retained by said collector as are other taxes or fees that are levied on a tax bill, until the local collecting unit is made whole. Delinquent fees shall be collected and enforced pursuant to New York State Real Property Tax Law Article 11, along with the delinquent taxes or other fees on the tax bill on which the solid waste access fee is contained. In the event a solid waste fee is required to be corrected, it shall be done so, as applicable, by implementing the provisions of Real Property Tax Law Article 550 et seq. and treated as a correction of errors.

[Added 12-20-2012 by L.L. No. 6-2012]