56 Main Street, Room 102
Owego, NY 13827
Main Phone:
607-687-8274
A comprehensive search tool enabling you to look up how to dispose of a wide variety of items can be found by CLICKING HERE.
New York State’s ban on the sale of polystyrene foam food service containers and loose fill packing materials goes into effect on January 1st, 2022. Polystyrene foam, or expanded polystyrene (EPS), is often referred to as “Styrofoam™”. For more information related to the ban that residents and businesses can take into consideration see NYS Polystyrene Foam Ban below
Quick Curbside Recycling Guide
PAPER RECYCLING
SHREDDED PAPER
If you shred at home, place shredded paper in a clear or opaque plastic bag, so it's contained and the recycling staff can see what it is. It is best if you use one of the shredding events held by local banks and credit unions.
CARDBOARD
DO NOT RECYCLE - (place these items in your trash)
GLASS CONTAINERS
No window pane glass, mirrors, ceramics, plates, cups or light bulbs
PLASTICS
No plastic bags*, plastic film*, Styrofoam, packing foam, packing peanuts, "clamshell" containers, automotive fluid containers, small appliances, utensils and plates.
METAL
No utensils, hangers, wire, cords or scrap metal
ABSOLUTELY NO PLASTIC BAGS OF ANY KIND
This includes grocery bags, department store bags, Ziploc bags and garbage bags
*Plastic bags and plastic film can be recycled through bag recycling programs at store locations
NO-Plastic or Food Wrap
NO-Prescription bottles
NO-Plastic Lids or Caps
NO-Feed, Pet Food, Pellet or Coal Bags
NO-Styrofoam
NO-Light bulbs
NO-Automotive Fluid Containers
NO-Glasses, Glass Plates or Cookware
NO-Window Glass
PLACE THESE IN YOUR TRASH
To replace or receive a new curbside recycling bin, please contact your private or municipal hauler.
Putting your recycling out the night before your pick-up day to prevent being missed.
Household hazardous waste is unusable home and garden products, which contain hazardous chemicals. Examples are pesticides, fertilizers, household cleaners, oil-based paints, oil-based driveway sealers, and pool chemicals.
The improper use, storage or disposal of household hazardous waste may pose a risk to the health of humans, animals and the environment.
To reduce these risks, Tioga and Broome Counties have worked to include Tioga County residents in the use of Broome County’s permanent Hazardous Waste Collection Facility. Wastes will be packed and shipped by trained personnel and disposed of in an environmentally safe manner.
Print the confirmation letter below and BRING IT with you on any of the designated collection days scheduled.
2021 DESIGNATED COLLECTION DATES
| April 7, 10 & 24 | May 5, 8 & 22 |
| June 2, 5 & 19 | July 7, 10 & 24 |
| August 4, 7 & 21 | September 1, 11 & 25 |
| October 6, 9 & 23 | November 3, 6 & 20 |
Between 7:30 am and 11:30 am to the Hazardous Waste Collection Facility located at the Broome County Nanticoke Landfill, 286 Knapp Road, Binghamton, NY 13902.
Please do not bring hazardous waste to the Owego or Barton Transfer Stations.
There is NO CHARGE to use the Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facility on DESIGNATED COLLECTION DATES.
MATERIALS ACCEPTED:
Up to 3 TV's & 3 monitors per resident
* Computer peripherals and small electronic equipment also include any cable, cord or wiring permanently affixed to or incorporated into such product.
Please see How to Dispose of... for disposal methods of specific items
In order to follow this mandate, residents are required to contract with a private hauler for recycling pickup.
Here are four possible options depending on where you live in Tioga County for curbside recycling only as well as curbside trash & recycling collection:
B&E Disposal – 607-699-3406
Taylor Garbage – 607-797-5277
Bert Adams Disposal – 607-648-4863
RPM Group – 607-223-8714
Casella (607-358-7771) do not provide curbside recycling only but are an option for curbside trash & recycling collection.
According to Taylor Garbage, residents will no longer be allowed to drop recycling off at their transfer stations, only trash.
Do you have leftover or expired medications and don’t know how to dispose of them? Do not flush them down the toilet or throw them out! Pharmaceuticals are very hard to filter out of water and soil once they are in the environment and persist for a very long time.
Tioga County Sheriff’s Office -
Medication Drop Box is located in the main lobby of the Tioga County Sheriff’s Office at 103 Corporate Drive, Owego, NY. The drop box is available Monday through Friday between 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM. Needles, lancets, other “sharps” and liquids are not accepted.
Village of Waverly Police Department -
Medication Drop Box is located at the Village of Waverly Police Department located at 32 Ithaca Street, Waverly, NY. The drop box is available Monday through Friday between 8:30 AM and 4:00 PM. Needles/Sharps are not accepted
Follow the below guidelines when storing sharps until they can safely be disposed of.
DO -
DON'T -
*Used sharps containers can be placed in the trash only if access to a drop-off is not available
For a full listing of local sharps disposal locations visit - New York State Directory of Community Sharps Collection Sites
Locations in Tioga and surrounding counties - CLICK HERE FOR WHAT TO DO WITH NEEDLES
Please call to confirm before dropping off items.
Please DON’T throw away before looking into alternatives! Every year New York State residents and businesses throw away almost 1.4 billion pounds of usable and recyclable textiles.
Open Door Mission - 687-1121 or visit their website http://opendoormissionandthereddoor.weebly.com/
Salvation Army - 565-7137
Please call to confirm before dropping off items
These items may be taken to the Open Door Mission (687-1121 or http://opendoormissionandthereddoor.weebly.com/) or placed in one of the many bins throughout Tioga County. These items do NOT have to be in "wearable" or perfect condition; they should, however, be clean and dry. For more information on available locations throughout the Southern Tier please visit the Textile Recovery Locations website.
***Only Dispose if wet or contaminated (for example: grease, mildew, odors), please place in trash.
NYS Polystryrene Foam Ban in Effect as of January 1, 2022
What You Need to Know
New York State’s ban on the sale of polystyrene foam food service containers and loose fill packing materials goes into effect on January 1st, 2022. Polystyrene foam, or expanded polystyrene (EPS), is often referred to as “Styrofoam™”. Here is information related to the ban that residents and businesses can take into consideration:
Why is the ban going into effect?
EPS has long been an environmental and waste management concern. Like other forms of single use plastic, EPS requires energy and oil to produce. The material takes up space in landfills, and cannot be recycled in most places (including Tioga County). When it makes its way into the recycling stream, EPS breaks apart and contaminates recyclable materials. It’s also one of the most common forms of litter found in the environment. The State’s ban aims to eliminate the problem at the source and promote alternatives such as reusable, natural, recycled, or recyclable products.
Who does the ban affect?
The ban applies to:
Covered food service providers, which the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) lists as: Any person selling or distributing prepared food or beverages, including restaurants, grocery stores, delis, coffee shops, caterers, food trucks and street vendors, hospitals, schools, adult care facilities and nursing homes, cafeterias, hotels, motels and inns, community meal programs, sporting venues, amusement parks, summer camps, correctional facilities, and faith-based organizations;
Stores that sell or distribute single-use food service containers or loose fill packaging in New York State;
Loose fill manufacturers who sell or distribute polystyrene foam loose fill in New York State.
Exemptions and existing waivers under the law.
This law does NOT apply to:
Raw meat, pork, seafood, poultry, or fish sold for the purpose of cooking or preparing off-premises by the customer;
Prepackaged food filled or sealed prior to receipt at a covered food service provider;
Food service containers made from rigid polystyrene resin that has not been expanded, extruded, or foamed (e.g., clear plastic containers marked with a #6 resin identifier);
Waiver Eligibility
Any facility, regardless of income, operated by a not-for-profit corporation or by a federal, state, or local government agency that provides food and meals to food insecure individuals at no or nominal charge, may request a financial hardship waiver of the requirements of the law.
Examples include:
Community meal programs; food pantries; and places of worship.
Covered food service providers that may also request a hardship waiver must meet the following criteria:
An annual gross income under $500,000 per location;
Do not operate 10 or more locations in New York State; and
Are not operated pursuant to a franchise agreement.
Waiver form can be found on the NYSDEC foam ban website: https://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/120762.html.
Please e-mail [email protected] with questions about how the statewide ban may affect local laws, ordinances, and regulations or for information about filing a written declaration with DEC. Renewable 12-month waivers can be applied for by not-for-profit and government agencies that provide food/meals to food-insecure individuals, and covered food service providers that are under a certain size. More information on waivers can be found on the NYSDEC website.
You can also reach out to Tioga County’s Sustainability Manager Ellen Pratt at [email protected] or 607-687-8274 for assistance in obtaining a waiver.
Alternatives and more information
The NYSDEC has more information available for businesses including:
NYSDEC foam ban website: https://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/120762.html
NYS Foam Ban fact sheet: https://www.dec.ny.gov/fs/programs/press/FoamFreeNY/EnglishFlyersFactSheets/
EPS Alternatives Reference Guide: https://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/materials_minerals_pdf/epsrefguide.pdf
Is there assistance available for businesses in Tioga County?
Tioga County Solid Waste Department is here to support local businesses and organizations’ efforts to reduce waste, reuse and recycling. Please email Ellen Pratt at [email protected] for more information.
In this technology-driven age, an increasing number of Americans are turning to online search engines rather than print phone books, yet yellow pages companies continue to drop unwanted directories on residents' doorsteps throughout the country. Unwanted directories are not only a nuisance but also a waste: each year the industry uses an estimated 4.68 million trees worth of wood fiber, or 14 football fields’ worth of forest per day. They are also a burden on local governments, who pay nearly $60 million annually to recycle or dispose of unwanted phone books.
By opting out of receiving phone books, your community can quickly reduce its environmental footprint and send an important message to publishers about wasteful distribution. In fact, every 100 unwanted phone books removed from printing and distribution reduces greenhouse gas emissions equal to nearly 2,000 miles driven by a passenger vehicle.
How Can Residents Opt Out?
It’s free, easy, and takes just 3 minutes! All residents need to do is click on this link "Opt Out Today" enter your zip code and create an account. After completing the registration, click "opt out of or order directories" and choose "opt out of all" option, then "save changes" and hit CONFIRM.
Over 20% of our community's waste isn't really waste at all; it’s compostable organic material like food and yard waste. If each of us does our part, we could reduce our waste substantially.
Composting will keep items such as:
Grass Clippings
Yard Trimmings (old plants, wilted flowers, small pruning)
Leaves
Vegetable & Fruit Scraps
Coffee Grounds
Tea Leaves
Wood Chips
out of the waste stream and transforms these “wastes” into humus-rich material that can contribute nutrients and beneficial life to soil, improve soil structure and prevent runoff that can pollute rivers and lakes.
For more information on starting your own backyard composting or improving your home composting checkout the following Tioga County’s Cornell Cooperative Extension website
Liquid mercury vaporizes (evaporates) at room temperature causing elevated levels of mercury in indoor air. Mercury vapor is not irritating and has no odor, so people do not know when they are breathing it. Even the small amount of mercury from a broken thermometer can cause harm, especially to children, unless it is properly cleaned up and removed.
Mercury may be found in thermometers, thermostats, blood pressure units, barometers and gas pressure regulators. Exposure to mercury can occur when people handle or play with the liquid metal, or when a measuring device breaks and mercury beads scatter onto floors or other surfaces. Spilled mercury is very hard to clean up, especially if it rolls into cracks and crevices, or if it is on fabric, upholstery or other porous material.
If you have old mercury thermometers or thermostats hanging around and you’re not sure what to do with them, you have several options.
1. Mercury Thermometers and Thermostats may be properly disposed at through the Tioga County Hazardous Waste Program.
Mismanaged mercury can be toxic and under certain circumstances can have highly detrimental effects on the nervous system. Removing mercury thermometers from the trash or the sanitary sewers is of considerable benefit to the environment.
2. Click on the following website for a list of other locations that accept THERMOSTATS in the community.
http://www.thermostat-recycle.org/
Avoid contact with the spilled mercury until you decide who will be cleaning it up - you or a professional. In general, you can clean up a small mercury spill yourself, such as from a fever thermometer or thermostat. This fact sheet provides a step-by-step guide on pages 3-4 on how to do the cleanup.
The New York State Departments of Health and Environmental Conservation recommend that a trained professional, such as a hazardous waste contractor, do the cleanup whenever the amount of mercury spilled is greater than what is typically found in a fever thermometer or thermostat. In other words, if the amount of mercury spilled exceeds 3 grams or about the size of a green pea, a trained professional should do the cleanup.
If the spill is... more than the amount in a mercury fever thermometer or thermostat, or if it is widely scattered, or if the spill is on carpeting which cannot be thrown out, or on upholstered furniture, or other porous items that cannot be bagged... you should call a trained professional. Check your telephone Yellow Pages under "Environmental engineers" or “Engineering services".
If in doubt... contact your local health department or others listed at the end of this fact sheet for more information.
Plan ahead if you have mercury-containing items in your home - get a Mercury Spill Kit
Mercury spill clean-up kits are available for purchase from laboratory equipment suppliers (some are listed in the box to the right). Carefully follow all the directions provided in the kit.
Sulfur powder (also called flowers of sulfur) can be purchased from agriculture supply stores, garden centers, and some pharmacies. For questions about the type of sulfur powder used during mercury spill cleanup, please contact the New York State Department of Health at 518-402-7810 or 800-458-1158.
A mercury spill usually forms several pools and many beads of mercury. Mercury does not stick to most materials other than some metals. Mercury beads roll very easily, often scattering long distances from the original location of the spill and getting into cracks and crevices where it can be very difficult to remove them. Cleaning up a mercury spill requires patience and attention to detail to recover the mercury and to limit your exposure to toxic mercury vapors.
At this point, you should have read the previous sections in this fact sheet that describe a small mercury spill, what you should do immediately after a mercury spill and what you need to know if you decide to do the spill cleanup yourself. The following section is a general step–by–step guide on how to clean up a small mercury spill. You should complete each of the following steps to recover the spilled mercury and remove the contamination. Any mercury not removed will continue to be a source of potentially harmful mercury vapors.
The Recycling Department offers several opportunities for teachers, organizations, and individuals to learn about recycling and waste reduction. We can tailor a presentation to fit the needs of your group or class.
School lessons and presentations can be taught on a variety of topics relating to waste reduction, natural resources extraction, low cost backyard composting, and to the basics of landfills and Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs). Presentations can be adapted to focus on a particular school subject or curriculum standard making recycling education easy and accessible for interested teachers.
By teaching children about the recycling process early, recycling can become a life value. Additionally, when we teach children, we also reach adults-parents, teachers and other members of the community.
Schedule an Educational Program
Fill out this form and we will be in contact with you. Please note that spring is a very popular time of year for recycling education so programs should be schedule as far in advance as possible.
Partial funding for recycling, waste reduction and household hazardous waste programs is provided by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
A comprehensive search tool enabling you to look up how to dispose of a wide variety of items can be found by CLICKING HERE.
