477 Route 96
Owego, NY 13827
Main Phone:
607-687-8274
The Barton Transfer Station located at 1216 Route 17C is open. It is privately owned and operated. Their hours of operation are Tuesday thru Saturday 7am – 12pm. They can be contacted by phone at 607-565-8170.
Recycling MattersThe difference that recycling makes is a big deal and it starts with small actions.
Recycling supports local jobs and helps keep prices lower on the goods you buy every day. It conserves energy and produces less pollution, protecting our environment.
Tioga County Solid Waste Department provides a convenient and economical method for Tioga County residents to divert recyclables from landfills through our County-Wide Curbside Recycling Program. Please see "Programs & Information" below for additional information such as our curbside recycling and household hazardous waste programs. Please check this page regularly for updates on recycling and waste programs.
Partial funding for recycling, waste reduction and household hazardous waste programs is provided by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
For information on ASBESTOS please visit the EPA's website at http://www2.epa.gov/asbestos#4
Tioga County partnered up with Taylor Garbage Transfer Station, 352 Glen Mary Drive, Owego 607-687-6710 for year-round Household Battery Drop-Off program (ALKALINE (AAA, AA, C, D, 9 VOLT) & RECHARGEABLE (N-Cad, Ni-Mh, Li-Ion, Pb)).
Please note: Batteries should be kept dry; tape ends. If you have leaky or corroded batteries, please place them in a plastic bag before depositing them in the drop-off container.
Additional Battery Recycling
As of June 8, 2011 all retailers selling rechargeable batteries are required to accept back the same type of rechargeable batteries.
***ALL BATTERIES MUST HAVE THEIR TERMINALS TAPED OR PLACED IN PLASTIC BAGS***
Note: This program is limited to residents. Businesses can find alternate disposal locations Rechargeable Batteries (N-Cad, Ni-Mh, Li-Ion, Pb): Check with local retailer for recycling.
More locations can be found on Call 2 Recycle’s website click HERE
Auto (Lead acid batteries):
Ben Weitsman & Son
15 W Main St, Owego
607-687-2780
Taylor Garbage Transfer Stations
352 Glen Mary Drive, Owego
607-687-6710
and
1216 State Route 17C, Barton
607-565-8170
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
WE HAVE MADE IT EASIER TO RECYCLE!
No more sorting recyclables. Just place all your recyclables together in your recycling bin. They are separated at a state-of-the-art recycling facility located in Tioga County.
PAPER RECYCLING
Newspaper, Magazines, Catalogs
Junk mail and Office paper
Telephone books, Soft cover books, Hard cover books with cover removed
Greeting cards, Wrapping paper
• No metallic wrapping paper
CARDBOARD
Corrugated Cardboard
Single Layer cardboard
• cereal & tissue boxes, egg cartons
Gable Top Milk and Juice Cartons
DO NOT RECYCLE:
NO-Waxed cardboard
NO-Food scraps or other contaminants. NO-Soiled paper NO-Foil/Metallic wrapping paper NO-Styrofoam egg cartons NO-Tissues NO-Napkins NO-Paper Cups NO-Paper Plates PLACE THESE IN YOUR TRASH
CONTAINER RECYCLING (Please Rinse Thoroughly)
GLASS: bottle and jar form only
• Clear
• Brown
• Green
PLASTICS: BOTTLE AND JUG FORM ONLY
• with the recycling symbol # 1 - 7
Rigid Plastic:
• 5-gal buckets and flower pots
• Recycling tubs
• Dish drainers
• Plastic cups and bowls
• Plastic hangers and chairs
• Toys and etc…
METAL
Tin and aluminum cans Clean aluminum foil Clean aluminum pans Completely empty aerosol cans
DO NOT RECYCLE:
ABSOLUTELY NO PLASTIC BAGS OF ANY KIND Please recycle plastic grocery bags at your local grocery store
NO-Feed, Pet Food Pellet or Coal Bags
NO-Styrofoam NO-Light bulbs NO-Automotive Fluid Containers NO-Glasses or Cookware NO-Glass Plates PLACE THESE IN YOUR TRASH
NEED A NEW RECYCLING BIN?
If you have been missed or need a replacement bin, please call us at (607) 687-8274.
RECYCLING SCHEDULE
MONDAY: TOWN OF OWEGO, including Kings Point, Lincolnshire and Ridgewood developments and Apalachin
TUESDAY: TOWNS OF CANDOR AND SPENCER, including Willseyville and Anderson Hill. Also Tioga Terrace
WEDNESDAY: TOWNS OF TIOGA AND NICHOLS. Also Village of Owego.
THURSDAY: TOWN OF BARTON, including Lockwood and Village of Waverly
FRIDAY: TOWNS OF RICHFORD, BERKSHIRE & NEWARK VALLEY. Also Village of Candor and Route 96 in Candor
NO COLLECTION ON CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR’S.
MISCELLANEOUS
Arrangements are available for residents with special needs. Please call our office so that we may help. If you have more than will fit into one bin, it is acceptable to place the overflow in a cardboard box alongside your bin.
Bins are County property and are to remain at their original location. If you move, leave the bin for the next occupant (You may label them with your address only, in permanent marker).
Putting your recycling out the night before your pick-up day may prevent being missed.
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.
You should erase personal information before recycling.
Limit of 3 “Tube Style” TV’s / Monitors Per Month
NO Limit on Rear Projection or Flat Screen TV’s / Monitors
Only those intended for use with a computer and weighing less than 100 lbs.
Please Note: For more descriptive directions to clean up a small mercury spill please go to the Environmental Protection Agency website at http://www.epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup.html
You might wonder what makes a light bulb so dangerous. Fluorescent lamps and mercury thermometers contain a small amount of an element called mercury. Mercury is a toxic substance that accumulates in the environment when items containing mercury are broken or thrown away. Mercury has been found in fish at levels of concern, resulting in fish consumption advisories throughout the State. Medical research has shown that exposure to unacceptable levels of mercury can cause neurological damage and attack your vital organs. New York State environmental law severely limits disposal of fluorescent bulbs in the trash. It also bans the sale of mercury-added novelty products and mercury-fever thermometers and requires new labeling and proper disposal or recycling of mercury-added consumer products. The law also prohibits primary and secondary schools from purchasing or using mercury.
Household Fluorescent Blubs
Residents that have old fluorescent bulbs hanging around the house have several disposal options:
Note: This program is limited to residents. Businesses can find alternate disposal locations or on the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s website http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/9089.html.
NYS Environmental Law
The State's law requires the following:
Three national companies, GE Lighting, Philips Lighting, and Osram Sylvania manufacture low mercury fluorescent lamps, compact fluorescents and high pressure sodium lamps. These bulbs should be available through any local company that is a distributor of commercial lighting products.
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 and bring the letter above and BRING IT with you on any of the days the Household Hazardous Waste is scheduled.
2017 DESIGNATED COLLECTION DATES
| April 5, 8 & 22 | May 3, 6 & 20 |
| June 3, 7 & 17 | July 5, 8 & 22 |
| August 2, 5 & 19 | September 6, 9 & 23 |
| October 4, 7 & 21 | November 1, 4 & 18 |
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:
Please see How to Dispose of... for disposal methods of specific items
The list in the document below is not all inclusive and does not constitute an endorsement or approval by Tioga County or provide any assurances with regard to the quality of services provided.
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
Household Sharps Disposal Guidelines
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
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.
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 "Opt Out Today" button
Enter zip code and create an account. After completing registration, click "opt out of or order directories" and choose "opt out of all" option, then "save changes" and hit CONFIRM.
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
Salvation Army - 565-7137
Please call to confirm before dropping off items
Place these items 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.
Tioga County's GIS Department created an app using ARCGIS and Web AppBuilder to view click here