Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Sea Cliff village board is revisiting ways to encourage more residents to recycle, and plans to enlist the village’s Environmental Conservation Commission to explore ideas for educating the community on recycling.
The ECC was created in 1979 to protect the environment and encourage sustainable practices. It has 15 members, six of whom are residents appointed by the board. The rest are ex officio members, and include the mayor, trustees, the chairs of the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals and Architectural Review Board, and the building inspector.
At the village board public conference meeting on Monday night, Mayor Elena Villafane said she has found recent public discussion of recycling to be “disconcerting.” Roughly 10 residents were in attendance, and conference meetings do not have a public comment period. Villafane said she has heard people say that recycling isn’t worth the effort because they believe much of what they recycle ends up in landfills.
“We don’t want it to get away from us,” she said. “We don’t want this false narrative to really gain traction, and all of a sudden we go from being a village that has a reputation of being environmentally sensitive to being the garbage capital of the world.”
Sea Cliff was named a Bronze Certified Climate Smart Community by New York state last year. Residents have taken part in a community composting program since December, and many have suggested that the village implement a formal program.
Currently, 18 percent of Sea Cliff’s waste is recycled. For several years, trustees have been aiming to reach 30 percent. The issue was discussed at a board meeting in March, when then ECC Co-chairs Dina Epstein and Laura Russo proposed that the board invite representatives of the state Department of Environmental Conservation to present information about the department’s Comprehensive Recycling Analysis. The presentation took place April 30.
The village has a contract with Winter Bros., a Waste Management company. Waste Management is a company that offers residential and commercial garbage and recycling pickup. Sea Cliff uses single-stream recycling, meaning residents place all recyclable materials in one bin. Winter Bros. trucks the collected recycling to Waste Management’s Glen Cove Transfer Station. From there the material is taken to the Brookhaven Materials Recovery Facility, where it is sorted, cleaned and prepared to be transported to its final destination.
Residents expressed concerns at last month’s public meeting, during public comment, that Brookhaven would not process Sea Cliff’s single-stream recycling. Villafane explained that the village’s contract with Winter Bros. ensures that the material it collects is being recycled. The village included a flier in the July 1 issue of its newsletter, the Sea Cliff Circle, detailing Waste Management’s system.
At Monday’s meeting, Villafane asked trustees for ideas on how the village can spread the word about recycling and encourage residents to do so. Deputy Mayor Nick Pinto suggested that the ECC be tasked with finding ways to educate the community, saying it is part of the entity’s function.
“Whether it’s a flier, whether it’s a social media post, whether it’s a video or something,” Pinto said, “to get out to our residents to talk about recycling and the proper way to recycle.”
Composting was also discussed Monday along with recycling. At last month’s meeting, Villafane explained the logistical obstacles to a village-wide composting program, such as space for equipment and that composting does not fall within the scope of work in the Sea Cliff Department of Public Works contract. Villafane has repeatedly emphasized that the village is not opposed to composting.
She said Monday that she has reached out to Port Washington North Mayor Robert Weitzner about his village’s food scraps drop-off program, a composting initiative expected to launch this fall.
“The composting to me is a process that is working its way forward,” Villafane said. “Recycling is a current thing that’s happening now that I fear is under stress.”
Villafane and trustees also discussed how recycling was implemented years ago, and eventually became an accepted part of the waste stream. When the recycling program was implemented, garbage routes and the DPW workers’ contract were modified.
Trustee George Williams pointed out that residents need time to adjust to a new program. “We don’t have a means to do composting,” he said. “But boy, people better be used to recycling if we’re going to ask them for now further segregation of their trash.”
The board’s next meeting is July 13, at 7 p.m., at Village Hall.
