Sanitary District No. 1 was established by resolution of the Hempstead Town Board on January 22, 1929.  Throughout the early decades of its operation, collection vehicles transported refuse to the Bay Boulevard site to be burned in the District’s brick-lined open-pit incinerator.

District Operations, circa 1931

In 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established and Congress passed the Clean Air Act calling for the EPA to research and develop national air quality standards.  As these regulations developed, it became more difficult for the District’s incinerator to meet the new, more stringent standards and the decision was made by the District’s Board of Commissioners to cease operation of the incinerator.  The District’s tipping hall was then converted into a transfer station.  In this facility, waste from the individual collection vehicles was loaded into larger transport vehicles for disposal off-site in conjunction with the Town of Hempstead.

In 1995, the District constructed a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) on the site of the old incinerator directly behind the tipping hall.  This facility uses mechanical and manual means to separate recyclable material from the waste stream prior to disposal of the non-recyclable waste.  Materials recovered in the MRF for recycling include various grades of paper, corrugated cardboard, plastics (various), metals (various) and wood. 

Leaf and yard waste is handled in a different area of the District’s property, where it is loaded into transfer trailers for hauling to an off-site processing and composting facility.