County Waste Management Supports Bedford 2020 Environmental Summit and Solar Action Day

County Waste Management was a proud sponsor the Bedford 2020 Environmental Summit and Solar Action Day, which featured interactive demonstrations, green products and information from more than 70 participating organizations and businesses.

The Summit 2015 Expo, held Jan. 31 at Fox Lane High School, had 550 attendees including residents, community members, legislators, media, speakers/experts, civic organizations and businesses and was hosted by Bedford 2020, a nonprofit organization with a mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Bedford by 20 percent by the year 2020.

The event resulted in 88 sign-ups so far for Solarize Bedford – Mt. Kisco, 65 sign-ups for Energize/Home Energy Efficiency, 35 sign-ups for Hudson Valley Bee Keepers and 34 leads for Tesla — 34 potential new electric drivers! A lively Q&A followed three keynote addresses and 15 workshop sessions.

“Our goal was for community members to come to the Summit ready to learn, share ideas and take action. That’s just what they did -- from signing up for energy assessments and solar evaluations; to focussing on waste reduction through single stream recycling, composting and leaf mulching; to learning about protecting our drinking water and backyard woods, and more.” said Midge Iorio, Executive Director at Bedford 2020.

At County Waste’s table president Ralph Mancini educated customers about single-stream recycling, which enables customers to use one recycling container for all recycling materials.

“Waste & Recycling is one of Bedford 2020’s action areas and we are encouraging our customers to recycle more by offering single-stream recycling, which makes recycling easier by eliminating the need to separate paper and plastic and saving space by using one recycle bin instead of two,” Mancini said.

The Waste/Recycling Task Force’s goal is to assist the Town in developing methods and procedures to promote increased waste/materials reduction and recycling while reducing the amount of waste generated from both residents and businesses in the Town.

Mancini said many people aren’t aware of how much trash is actually recyclable with single-stream recycling, including empty candy bar wrappers, cereal box liners and microwave popcorn bags as long as they are free of food.

Comprised of an executive director, board of directors and more than 90 community volunteers divided into nine task forces, Bedford 2020 is dedicated to reducing emissions and making a difference through community programs that span five areas including: Energy, Food & Agriculture, Transportation, Waste & Recycling, and Water & Land Use.
Residents can use the Recyclopedia on Bedford 2020’s website as a recycling reference including what to recycle, where, how and by whom.

In addition to County Waste, sponsors included Bright Home Energy Solutions – Robison, Curtis Instruments, Wizard Studios, Healthy Home Energy & Consulting, City Carting, Ross Solar Group and Westchester Community Foundation.

For more information, visit www.bedford2020.org and www.westchestercountywaste.com.

Photo 1
Left to right: Eddie Cataldo, Ralph Mancini, Michael Gentile of County Waste Management and Jordan Decker at the Bedford 2020 Environmental Summit and Solar Action Day.

Photo 2:
Amory B. Lovins talks about clean car technology at the Bedford 2020 Environmental Summit and Solar Action Day.

Photo 3
County Waste Management Truck at the Bedford 2020 Environmental Summit and Solar Action Day.