continued from page 5 The Gariglianos have been a part of Sullivan County since the beginning. They settled in Grahamsville in the early 1800s and have lived continuously on the same land for over 200 years. The 2018 recipient of the Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce’s Distinguished Service Award, Walter Garigliano, has more than 30 years of legal and business experience. “It felt very nice to be recognized,” he said during a sit down interview at his law office in Monticello. Garigliano founded Catskill Mountain Sugar House 33 years ago. Today it’s run by his son John, with brothers Jim, Matthew, Joe and Mark also chipping in to the family business. The Sugar House sits on 800 acres between the NYC Rondout Reservoir and The Sundown/Denman Mountain Wild Forest. They supply large businesses like Nana Joe’s Granola based out of San Francisco, and their maple syrups are distributed as close as Peck’s Markets and as far as restaurants in the United Arab Emirates. Besides his family’s successful maple syrup business, Garigliano Law Offices has been on Broadway in Monticello for more than 30 years. During that time, Garigliano has also served as the attorney for the Town of Neversink for 32 years and general counsel to the Sullivan County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) for the past 20 years. He also serves as secretary and general counsel for Tomra of North America, Inc. A Norwegian public company, Tomra is the world’s largest recycler of empty beverage containers. “If you visit the Shoprite in Liberty there’s a little bottle room to the left of entrance. The machines in that bottle room are manufactured by Tomra,” Garigliano said. Tomra of North America, Inc. is the subsidiary that operates in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Garigliano said the United States is unique in that we have 50 different strategies for recycling our used beverage containers, while recycling is often more streamlined in European countries. “There’s 70odd million people in Germany and there’s one German system. There’s 50-odd million people in France and there’s one French system. In the US there’s 10 bottle bill states and 40 that aren’t. That means we have 40 states that handle used beverage containers by mixing them in with the municipal waste trash stream, destroying their economic value. Aluminum is a high-value commodity, but it’s not a high value commodity when you mix it in with coffee grinds and the rest of your omelette you didn’t eat,” Garigliano said. Garigliano’s work for Tomra brings him to many different parts of the country. “I think it gives me more than a local perspective on economic development issues. I’ve seen the successes and failures,” he explained. Garigliano is able to bring the lessons from his travels
He also serves as secretary and general counsel for Tomra of North America, Inc. A Norwegian public company, Tomra is the world’s largest recycler of empty beverage containers.
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