Mapping Material Flows in The Hudson Valley

Keywords: maps, GIS, statistical analysis, waste, environmental injustice, environmental justice, materials management, recycling
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

In the Hudson Valley, pressures to expand recycling and waste diversion in hopes of a “circular economy” are dominant in waste-related environmental justice efforts. Waste systems that follow the structure of a green economy emphasize robust private, for-profit recycling facilities and chemical recyclers that are hazardous to the communities they operate in, and systemically disproportionally impact lower-income communities of color. For-profit recycling works to sustain and justify current rates of plastic consumption without tackling plastic reduction or reuse. The social ramifications of existing recycling agencies and material management facilities in the Hudson Valley go unnoticed due to the poor and largely inaccessible documentation of current New York State waste flows collected by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Working with Sustainable Hudson Valley, a local environmental non-profit, we offer an environmental justice critique of waste and recycling flows in the Hudson Valley. We use arcGIS and digitized versions of the DEC waste data to map material flows between Transfer Stations, Material Recovery Facilities, Incinerators, and Landfills in six counties, Ulster, Dutchess, Orange, Rockland, Putnam, and Westchester. Our statistical analyses visualize correlations between point locations of various material facilities and selected census demographics (like race and income). The project illuminates waste diversion gaps and opportunities through visualizing current HV material re-use and waste reduction efforts, waste transportation redundancies, exorbitant international and inter-state exports, facility deserts that threaten recycling accessibility, and facility hotspots that disproportionately expose low-income communities of color to recycling environmental hazards and filth.