_______ Lynbrook/east rockaway ______
HERALD Also serving Bay Park
E.R. team stays determined
Firemen honor veterans
Frolic planned for Friday
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Vol. 32 No. 23
JUNE 5 - 11, 2025
$1.00
Reworld turns village waste into energy
on average, two tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per ton of waste processed, according to Despite common misconcep- the company. This process helps offset tions, the Village of Lynbrook manages its waste through a some of the costs associated modern waste-to-energy facili- with waste management, Phil ty that uses advanced thermal Healy, director of Public Works technology to reduce landfill for the Village of Lynbrook, use, generate electricity, recov- said. It costs $85 per ton for waste er recyclable materials and l ow e r t h e e nv i r o n m e n t a l incineration, compared to $110 per ton for recyimpact of trash discling because of posal, said Village the labor involved officials. in hand-processing The Village of the materials. Lynbrook contracts Lynbrook conw i t h Rewo rl d , a tributes less than company that oper11,000 tons of waste ates a thermal treatannually to a ment facility re gional total of designed to convert approximately municipal solid 560,000 tons, Beach waste into usable said. energy. The four Long The term “incinIsland facilities erator” often evokes m a n a g e ab o u t 2 ima g es of heavy million tons of pollution and waste and recycle smoke stacks, Lyn60,000 tons of metal brook Mayor Alan DAwN HARMoN Beach said, but he Reworld’s Long Island a year, according to Reworld data. noted the facility in market director However, Dawn use today reflects Harmon, Reworld’s moder n environmental standards and sustain- Long Island market director, said a common misconception able practices. “A significant, as I under- is that the facility recycles all stand it, byproduct of the burn- items. While the same trucks maning of trash is the steam heat from the high temperature age both waste and recycling burn [which generates] steam for municipalities, they are not powered turbines to produce delivered to the same facilities. “Some people think recyelectricity,” Beach said. The energy is transferred cling doesn’t matter because into the electrical grid while it’s all coming here anyways,” recovered metals are sent for Harmon said. “That’s not what recycling. The process offsets, Continued on page 12
By AINSlEY MARTINEZ
amartinez@liherald.com
Alice Moreno/Herald
Celebrating the honorable Class of 2025 Lynbrook teachers and administrators honored high school seniors with final awards last Thursday. Story, more photos page 10.
Three paths, one purpose
Lynbrook High alumnus, students look to the medical field By AINSlEY MARTINEZ amartinez@liherald.com
For Erick Diaz, Kate Santoli and Kevin Langbart, the journey to medicine began in the same hallways—those of Lynbrook High School. A 2019 Lynbrook High School alumnus, Langbart recently graduated from the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. He will begin his general surgery residency there this July. Reflecting on his high school years and the start of college, he said the rigor and mental demands of preparing for medical school were challenging, but ultimately, worth it. Meanwhile, students Santoli and Diaz will begin their college journeys after graduating high school this June.
Diaz, Lynbrook’s 2025 salutatorian, will attend Johns Hopkins University this fall with his sights set on medical school, driven by the personal experience of watching his grandmother battle illness from afar. “She doesn’t live in the U.S., so there were a lot of challenges with communication and care,” Diaz said. “That definitely inspired me. I want to be part of addressing disparities between countries when it comes to medical care.” Valedictorian Kate Santoli will start classes at Washington University in Maryland and plans to major in cognitive neuroscience, a path cemented after a summer working in a psychology lab at Hofstra University. “We were studying the impact of childhood trauma on mental health later in life,” Santoli Continued on page 23
S
ome people think recycling doesn’t matter because it’s all coming here anyways. That’s not what is happening