More than 50 Thalle Industries employees and allies recently packed a Greenburgh Town Board meeting, showing powerful, unified support for the company’s application to resume full operations at its Virtual Quarry in Elmsford.
This public display comes after more than two years of protracted hearings and negotiations with Town of Greenburgh officials.
Thalle Industries is pushing to fully reactivate the Virtual Quarry, which has been a fixture and a responsible corporate citizen in Greenburgh for nearly three decades.
“This operation has been in your town, functioning lawfully, safely, without incident, as a productive business in your town for 27 years,” said Thalle’s attorney, David Steinmetz, who stressed the essential nature of the quarry’s work. “What Thalle is doing on this property is the absolute, essential existence of recycling. This is construction recycling at its finest.”
Despite the quarry’s history of safe operation, shifting demands from Greenburgh officials have forced Thalle Industries to invest heavily in demonstrating compliance. The company has spent more than $300,000 on various analyses conducted on the Town’s behalf.
To directly address the Town’s concerns, Thalle has proactively offered three major site plan improvements:
- A loop road around the site to manage traffic flow.
- A truck tire wash to minimize track-out onto public roads.
- A new scale for accurate material measurement.
Glenn Pacchiana, Thalle president and CEO, appealed directly to the Board, underscoring the company’s community role.
“We’re a big and integral part of the economy here. We keep the place clean. We’re environmentally conscious,” he said.
He warned of potential environmental and logistical burdens if the quarry can’t operate.
“If we’re not here, those trucks have to go across the Tappan Zee Bridge to get new material. When people don’t have places to go, they take material anywhere they can,” said Pacchiana, showing the Town Board a video of a Greenburgh municipal truck dumping old asphalt into a pit near Thalle’s property.
Pacchiana closed with a plea for fair treatment after the lengthy process: “We do the right thing. We are not bad guys. We’ve been treated like we are thugs. Please grant us our permit.”
Support for Thalle’s practices also came from the Westchester Parks Foundation’s executive director Joseph Stout, who highlighted the company’s alignment with broader county goals.
“Environmental leadership is an important piece of what this company does, and it aligns directly with Westchester County’s environmental and sustainability goals,” said Stout. “Thalle Industries demonstrates that industry and environmental responsibility can coexist successfully, and in fact, strengthen one another.”
The overwhelming turnout of employees and local advocates underscored the community’s desire for the prompt and full reopening of this vital recycling operation.