Niagara County’s lawmaker Dave Godfrey said that a first local law in New York that will hold manufacturers responsible for disposing of used solar panels is now being drafted and put before county lawmakers on June 15. “As I said when we began this process in March, our community has the unfortunate legacy of the nuclear and chemical industries, which were then hailed as the technologies of the future, but the waste of these technologies has ultimately caused great damage to our community. “Said Godfrey. “What we are proposing now will ensure that we don’t make this mistake with dead solar panels.”
Niagara County’s environmental coordinator Dawn Timm said the Product Stewardship Institute was instrumental in drafting this law. “PSI has the resources to seek input from industry stakeholders and leverage best practices from EPR programs from around the world to help us create a plan that is workable for us,” said Timm. “We continue to believe that a nationwide effort is the best approach, but we won’t wait for the state to act.”
Godfrey said local law creates a convenient, safe, and environmentally friendly system for recycling solar panels, minimizing hazardous waste, and recovering commercially valuable materials. The draft is available for review at https://tinyurl.com/4h3f4ups. Public comments are welcome. Local residents are invited to attend a public hearing on the proposal on June 15 at 5:45 pm at the Niagara County Courthouse.