DEP AWARDS TOWNS $3.6 MILLION TO SUPPORT MUNICIPAL
RECYCLING
(04/102) TRENTON -- Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell today
announced $3.6 million in municipal and county grants to
help local recycling programs recover more materials for
reuse.
"For the second year in a row we are funding towns
and counties for successful recycling operations,"
said Commissioner Campbell. "This funding represents
one step in our efforts to increase recycling rates that
have lagged in New Jersey since the mid 1990s."
DEP is updating its Statewide Solid Waste Management Plan
to identify ways to increase recycling and composting, as
well as to improve source reduction and the removal of household
hazardous waste from the normal disposal stream. DEP held
public hearings in 2003 to get comments from interested
parties on a draft of the plan and expects to release a
new proposal for public comment early this fall.
In December 2002, Governor James E. McGreevey signed the
Clean Communities and Recycling Grant Act into law to make
this funding available for municipal and county recycling
efforts after previous funding lapsed. The Clean Communities
anti-litter program also regained funding at this time,
which amounted to $9.8 million in grants to towns and counties
in spring 2004. Clean communities funds can be used to purchase
or rent equipment and receptacles, as well as to provide
trash bags, gloves and other protective clothing to encourage
towns and volunteers to clean up solid waste in their localities.
The recycling grant awards are performance based, specifically
on documented materials recycled during calendar year 2002,
the latest statistics available for the state. In 2002,
New Jersey generated 19.3 million tons of solid waste and
recycled 10.3 million tons, or 53 percent of the total amount.
This amount includes not only glass, cans, plastic and newspapers
from municipal waste, but also scrap iron, concrete, wood
and other items from commercial waste. The 2002 municipal
solid waste recycling rate was 33 percent, down from a high
of 45 percent in 1995. Measures to increase the municipal
recycling rate will be a key component of the state's solid
waste management plan update.
The remaining 9 million tons of solid waste generated but
not recycled in 2002 was disposed of in the following manner:
1.5 million tons, or 8 percent, incinerated in state; 3.8
million, or 20 percent, landfilled in New Jersey; and, 3.7
million, or 19 percent, landfilled out of state.
New Jersey's recycling industry employs more than 27,000
people in New Jersey with total receipts valued at $5.9
billion annually.
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