| No You Can’t Stop Recycling If It Gets Too Expensive – At the Swap and Share a question came up about a provision of the Recycling Act (N.J.S.A. 13:1E-99.11 et seq.) that would permit a town to stop recycling a designated recyclable material if the cost to recycling that material was more than the cost to transport and dispose of that material as Solid Waste. THIS IS NOT THE CASE – there was language in the Original (1987) Recycling Act in the definition of “Market(s)” that spoke of this but the 1993 Amendments to the Law (P.L. 1993, c.109) removed that language. |
| Read “Changes in China’s recycling could cost N.J. towns cash” that appeared in the Record |
| Download “”The Economic Benefits of Recycling – WasteWise Case Studies from the Private and Public Sectors. |
| EnviroPolitics chats with several of the participants, including a national magazine editor, a former NJDEP chief of staff, a man whose ‘app’ will tell your smart phone all it needs to know about what you can put at the curb on recycling day, a woman who has plans for your empty juice carton, and a pair of adorable fifth grade poets – click Recyclers in NJ meet for 32nd education & awards event to view video |
| Integrity Recycling & Waste Solutions Inc, one of our Sustaining Members, and Cardella Waste Services have launched the first-ever recycling industry calculator application for the iPhone. To measure environmental impact, the App’s calculator converts recyclable tonnages for paper, metal, plastic and wood into positive environmental savings measures, such as avoided landfill airspace, gallons of oils, kilowatts of electricity, and more. The App is available free at |
| 2009 County Electronics Survey – showing what materials are accepted, costs (2009), amount processed (2007 &08) and vendors used. |
| Read ANJR’s President, Dominick D’Altilio’s words on the current recycling market situation:
The world economic “crisis” has reached the recycling markets – prices for the sale of recyclables after many boom years have dropped and in many cases gone from getting paid to paying for the disposition of recyclables. The market conditions we are now experiencing are nothing new, they have occurred in the 90’s and will occur again. The material we collect are commodities and subject to world economics. As a recycling community we must remain composed, continue our commitment to recycling and be prepared to defend recycling to those who will use this market drop to discredit recycling and our work. Remember in New Jersey Recycling is the Law no matter what the market conditions are. |
| Read “What Happened to the Recycling Markets” by Ralph Giordano, Integrity Recycling & Waste Solutions Click here |
| DEP discontinues the deduction of residue from Single Stream Totals for Annual Recycling Tonnage Report. |
| Read ANJR’s Comments on the Proposed Re-adoption with Amendments of N.J.A.C. 7:26A – Recycling Rules Click here |
9/26/04 – Environmentally friendly disposal bins at turnpike service areas
Recycling pulls into turnpike, parkway service areas
9/25/2004, 9:59 a.m. ET
By STEVE STRUNSKY
The Associated Press
WOODBRIDGE, N.J. (AP) ó Lourdes Dos Santos, who sells sunglasses from a cart in front of the New Jersey Turnpike’s Thomas A. Edison Service Area, finished her Diet Pepsi and threw the plastic bottle in the trash.
Informed that a black, 55-gallon drum set down near her cart a few days earlier was for recycling, Dos Santos mouthed a silent “oops,” retrieved the bottle and put it in the drum.
“I didn’t know that,” the Elizabeth resident said, with an embarrassed laugh.
Moments later, a man who had just pulled off the turnpike into the Edison service area in Woodbridge, threw a Diet Coke can into a concrete trash receptacle only a few feet from the recycling drum.
“I missed that,” the man said, as he headed for the service area door.
Recycling may take some getting used to along the turnpike and New Jersey’s other main toll road, the Garden State Parkway. For the first time in the highways’ half-century histories, motorists now have an environmentally friendly way to dispose of their bottles and cans.
Two weeks ago, HMS Host, a Maryland-based company that operates most of the state’s highway service areas, installed 160 recycling drums at the turnpike’s 12 service areas and six of the nine service areas on the parkway. McDonalds, which runs the three remaining parkway service areas, also installed recycling bins this month, a spokesman said.
Though the drums’ flat, blue lids have the triangular recycling symbol painted next to a round hole for bottles and cans, the sides give no hint of the drums’ purpose. Joe Orlando, a spokesman for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, said recycling symbols will be painted on the sides of the drums.
The turnpike authority, which also oversees the parkway, asked service area operators to install recycling bins after the Associated Press reported in June that there were no recycling options at the rest areas.
Many items sold at the service areas are recyclable, including plastic bottles with labels reading, “Please recycle.”
“This clearly was an oversight that was brought to our attention,” Orlando said. “There’s no two ways about it, there should be recycling containers out there.”
HMS Host’s contract with the turnpike authority dates back to 1974, before recycling was commonplace. The contract has been extended several times, including a September 2000 extension to 2018, when HMS pledged to invest $25 million in the rest areas’ physical condition. Turnpike and company officials said the issue of recycling had simply never come up.
“It’s probably something we all should have all thought about,” HMS President Tommy Sanders said of recycling.
The Atlantic City Expressway has offered recycling at its one service area for several years, said Sharon Gordon, a spokeswoman for the South Jersey Transportation Authority.
The parkway and turnpike recycling initiative comes as officials are trying to reverse a statewide decline in recycling. Recycled materials represented 44.5 percent of the state’s overall waste stream in 1995, and that dropped to 33.6 percent in 2002, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
One reason for the decline, officials and recycling proponents said, was that public awareness campaigns encouraging recycling have faded as funding for them dried up.
For example, a tax of $1.50 per ton on solid waste disposal expired in 1997 and was never reauthorized, after having raised about $11 million a year for recycling programs for a decade, said Fred Mumford, a DEP spokesman.
About $3.2 million was raised for recycling grants last year under a 2002 tax on high-litter industries, Mumford said.
But that falls far short of what the expired solid waste law provided, said Marie Kruzan, executive director of the Association of New Jersey Recyclers.
“If you want people to do something, you have to keep reminding them,” said Kruzan, who said she’s aware of the political will needed to approve any tax. “The reauthorizing is difficult because it’s got the T-word attached to it.”
December 16, 2001
ANJR Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor:
A handful of state legislators are holding a clean New Jersey hostage.
The future of the state’s Clean Communities program was jeopardized last Thursday when the Assembly Majority leadership prevented Assembly Bill A-2413 (which reauthorizes the Clean Communities, a litter clean up, Program) from reaching the floor of the General Assembly, even though it had bi-partisan support.
Assembly Majority Leader DiGaetano says that no one should worry, for municipalities and counties will pick up the cost of litter abatement programs. Assemblyman Gregg offered that the funding should come from general state revenues.
Now, really. What mayor or freeholder would willingly increase property taxes? And what legislator would vote to increase the state income tax to replace the $12 million provided through the Clean Communities program? It won’t happen, not in Trenton and not in our towns or
counties. The result: a return to dirty beaches, parks, roads and stream sides.
Why would one oppose a method of funding by businesses and industry that have produced the litter generating materials, when they have funded this program for the past 15 years, thereby keeping the financial burden off the backs of most taxpayers? The tax of close to one quarter of one percent is paid by manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of products ranging from food and beverages to tires. These are the items that are often strewn along our highways and byways, and it just makes sense that the funds for cleanups of these materials emanate from the manufacturers and resellers.
The sad reality is that the Republican leadership know that neither local officials nor the legislature will fund litter cleanup through increases in local or state taxes. This is our last chance to keep New Jersey clean. There are only a few weeks left during which this bill can be addressed by the legislature. It’s time to set politics aside and put A-2413 to a vote.
Marie Kruzan. Executive Director, Association of New Jersey Recyclers
908-722-7575 or 908-526-7858
Robert O. Pellet, President , Clean Communities Council
October 17, 2001
Single Stream Recycling
What exactly is single-stream?
A single-stream program integrates the collection and processing components of recycling into the most economical method: all recyclable materials are collected in one “stream.” Mixed paper and commingled containers are all collected together and delivered to the MRF. A single-stream MRF automatically separates the paper from the containers and then follows the traditional processing approach.
Traditionalists argue that contamination goes up and recyclers get suspicious, but single stream proponents say the new systems are engineering marvels. Is single-stream the next
big thing or complete recycling heresay?
The Impact of Plastic Containers on Recycling Center Operations
Most recycling centers in New Jersey were designed and constructed in the early 1990’s. Although these designs included the sorting of plastic bottles, the rapid growth of this material stream was not anticipated by many planners and recycling coordinators associated with this effort.
The rapid replacement of glass for plastic in container packaging has forced many centers to re-configure their sorting lines and storage areas to accommodate this tonnage. Another impact of this evolution has been the increase in plastic packaging. Many homeowners are confused as to why certain plastics – flowerpots, microwave trays, plastic film – cannot be recycled along with containers. While many of these items are labeled with the recycling symbol, end markets do not accept them for reuse in part due to the way they were manufactured. This means recycling center managers must direct their staff to separate these items for landfill disposal.
One ancillary impact of the increasing use of plastics has been the calculation of tonnage recycled on a statewide basis. Since plastic has replaced glass containers the tonnage figures have decreased. This does not necessarily reflect a drop in participation but reduces the percentage of material recycled on a weight basis. Tonnage grants provided to municipalities are based on weight and towns with a high rate of plastic consumption and recycling are penalized.
Brian Lefke
Atlantic Cty. Utilities Authority
PO Box 996
Pleasantville, NJ 08232
www.acua.com
ANJR MEMBERSHIP BOOSTS BUSINESS: A RECENT CASE STUDY – Nick Caricato, President of Carpet Recovery, Inc. in Newark is now one of ANJR’s biggest boosters, and for good reason. The company joined ANJR at the beginning of 2005 and immediately signed on to present at the organization’s annual meeting. The value of this focused networking was rapidly evident. ” Within weeks, we were connected with the NJDEP and The Home Depot and have already signed up a major client who will give us huge regional support and business,” says Caricato. Carpet Recovery collects carpeting removed during installations, and through a proprietary process reclaims and recycles the material into nylon raw materials for future production. “The ANJR connection really let us hit the ground running, and has also connected us with many municipal and county reycling professionals interested in our services,” he says.