Zecca retiring May 31

WAMPSVILLE, N.Y. » Madison County’s Recycling Czar, James Zecca, is retiring after 30 as director of the Department of Solid Waste and Sanitation.

Retiring on May 31, Zecca has taken a small site and transformed it into an energy-efficient facility. Madison County’s landfill is a paradigm for solid waste experts and those seeking to emulate the green initiatives in practice there.

Since starting the first recycling program at SUNY Cobleskill in the 1970s against some tough opposition, Zecca has never backed down from a challenge.

“Throughout my tenure at the Madison County Department of Solid Waste, I was fortunate to have a great group of people working shoulder to shoulder with me to turn a small landfill into a showplace for renewable energy,” said Zecca.

Zecca praised several of his staff and business partners, including Russ Hammond and

his crew, Recycling Coordinator Sharon Driscoll, Lynne Shephard, Cindi Shoener, Sarah Gaudin, Barton and Loguidice engineering, Attorney Bill Buchan and his wife Sharon, ARC Manager Mike Bowe and former manager Ken Stone. Together, they “accomplished great things here in Madison County,” Zecca said.

Not only is the Madison County landfill celebrated in Central New York, its successes have reverberated around the globe. Scientists, news reporters and those involved in the solid waste industry from Australia, Ecuador, Russia and Sweden, along with visitors from across the United States, have toured the Buyea Road landfill site seeking information on renewable energy from Zecca.

Zecca became head of the Madison County Department of Solid Waste and Sanitation in 1988. His efforts to pursue solar energy and gas-to-energy have put the landfill on the international map.

Throughout his career, Zecca has championed renewable energy and innovative green technology. He was the Recycling Center supervisor in Wilton and then the town of Milford Recycling and Biosolids Composting coordinator in New Hampshire in the 1980s. As mayor of Oriskany Falls in the late ‘80s, Zecca initiated the first mandatory curbside recycling program in Oneida County, utilizing an old abandoned dairy building as the recycling center.

In 2011, Madison County was the first municipality in the nation to cover its landfill with energy-generating solar technology. The landfill features Carlisle’s Spectro Power Cap Solar Cover system that protects the landfill closure system while also generating clean, renewable energy for the ARC Recycling Center.

Zecca was presented with the 2014 New York State Association for Reduction, Reuse and Recycling Leadership Award for Lifetime Achievement during the 25th anniversary conference of NYSAR3 in Cooperstown.

Zecca’s latest efforts have been centered on establishing a plastics and tires-to-energy facility at the newly- created Agriculture and Renewable Energy Park on Buyea Road next to the landfill site. His wish was to establish a collection site for tires along with agricultural and rigid plastics that would be turned into synthetic gas or diesel fuel. The facility would provide jobs for the area and save the county thousands of dollars in energy costs.

Zecca has also been a long time board member of the NYS Solid Waste Management Association and a founding member of the New York State Association of Recycling.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MADISON COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF SOLID WASTE AND SANITATION Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, left, presents Jim Zecca, director of the Madison County Department of Solid Waste, with an official certification from the Congressional Record of her speech before Congress in which she honored Zecca’s service.