Close to a third of the people participating in a solid waste survey said they regularly dispose of trash by burning, according to the results of the survey reported recently to the Solid Waste Committee by the county's Burn Barrel Committee. Of those people, only half would halt the practice if regulations were adopted to restrict trash burning.

The purpose of the survey was to better understand how county citizens handle trash and hazardous waste.

Volunteer surveyors approached every third person attending the Otsego County fair in Morris between July 31 and August 5. Information was gathered from 241 persons aged 16 years and over. Two-thirds of the respondents lived in rural areas of the county.

The survey represents the opinions of residents from 34 different towns or villages in Otsego County.

Of all those responding to the survey, 94 percent said that they regularly separate their recyclables from their trash. Eighty-seven percent of those responding send these items to MOSA. Less than five percent said that they put their recyclables in with the trash.

Within the survey was a series of questions dealing with the specifics of trash burning in the county.

Of those polled, 29 percent admitted burning trash generally wood, paper and cardboard and less commonly plastics.

The convenience of burning trash as a mean of disposal was cited by almost 70 percent of those who burned. another 16 percent of the burners said cost of disposal stimulated them to burn instead. Eleven percent of the burners felt that reduced tipping fees would cut down on trash burning, but passage of regulations restricting burning would stimulate only 35 percent of those currently burning to stop.

In contrast, 82% of all responders felt that the burning of trash was harmful to the environment, to their health and that of others. Two thirds of those responding specifically stated that they did not want trash to be burned in Otsego County.

"These findings give us a much clearer idea of how many of our fellow citizens are burning trash in Otsego county and why they are motivated to do this." says Mary Ashwood, chairperson of Otsego County's Burn Barrel Committee. "The task of our committee is to help our neighbors understand that the burning of treated wood, plastics and bleached paper products causes significant and long-lasting harm to our shared rural environment. For this reason trash burning is outlawed in several of our neighboring counties and in most of New York's neighboring states."

The Burn Barrel Committee will be exploring ways to make proper means of disposal more available to county residents. It will also be working on educational approaches to those who continue to burn trash, Ashwood said.