Safety & Environment

Waste Management

Hazardous wastes are captured and shipped by Con Edison and O&R each year to licensed commercial waste-handling facilities. Periodic surveys of sampling results of wastes that come from cleaning our underground electric facilities, including manholes and transformer vaults, indicate that a very small and declining percentage of wastes from these structures contain actionable levels of lead. We conservatively presume much of this waste to contain lead due to infiltration from surface water from city streets and the time lag in obtaining testing results that would confirm the presence or absence of lead. 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 renders lead virtually inert and therefore no longer hazardous. In 2019, Con Edison removed approximately 7,500 tons of hazardous waste in connection with the removal of four retired fuel oil tanks.

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 1 million cubic feet in landfill space.

Con Edison and O&R recycle or auction for sale tons of nonhazardous 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