Gloucester Twp. Receives $89,000 Grant for Recycling Efforts

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will be giving a recycling assistance grant of $83,039 to Gloucester Township for the number of recyclables collected in the township during 2010, DEP Commissioner Bob Martin announced on Monday.

The grants, which totaled more than $660,000 in Camden County, are incentives to municipalities that collect the most recyclables. The grants are issued based on the total tonnage of recyclables that each municipality reported to the state during 2010. Gloucester Township received the second-largest grant in Camden County, trailing only Cherry Hill, which received $140,641.68.

The DEP grants began with the passage of the Recycling Enhancement Act in 2008. The grants come from a recycling tax fund that was established with the new law. It issues a $3 per ton surcharge for trash that is disposed at solid waste facilities. The grant money that is issued to each municipality must be used to help further promote and enhance its own recycling program.

A total of approximately $13.1 million was issued to municipalities across that state in the 2010 reward round. In 2010, New Jersey reached a 40 percent municipal solid waste recycling rate for the first time since 1998.

"As we observe the 25th anniversary of the state’s Mandatory Recycling Act (passed in 1987) this year—a landmark law that made New Jersey the first state to require recycling—we are making a call to action across the state for everyone to renew their commitment to recycle," Martin said.

Gloucester Township officials estimate garbage tipping fees will be cut by more than $150,000 during the first year of single-stream recycling, which was implemented here in November 2011. Single-stream recycling allows residents to place paper, plastic and metal recyclables in one container.

Click on the following links for more information on the Recycling Enhancement Act and for more recycling statistics and figures.