Safety & Environment

Waste Management

Tons of hazardous waste are captured and shipped by CECONY and O&R each year to licensed commercial waste-handling facilities. Most of this waste is presumed lead-contaminated and comes from cleaning our underground electric facilities, including manholes and transformer vaults. The costs of cleaning these facilities and the amount of hazardous waste generated have been reduced substantially since 1998 – the year we launched a waste program managed by our employees that rendered lead virtually inert and therefore no longer hazardous.

O&R’s recycling program continues a long-established partnership with Rockland ARC, a local organization that provides support for the mentally disabled. Since 1991, O&R recycling has saved more than one million cubic feet in landfill space. 

CECONY and O&R recycle or auction for sale tons of non-hazardous waste, including retired fleet vehicles, forklifts, tool carts, old cables, streetlights, reflectors, meters, and paper products.

Waste Management O&R cleaned up coal tar residue at a former manufactured gas plant in Nyack