Ocean County municipalities are renewing their recycling program agreements with the County allowing for continued environmental and economic benefits through recycling.
“All 33 municipalities have indicated they will be signing their five-year Recycling Center Use and Revenue Share Program agreements,” said Freeholder James F. Lacey, who serves as liaison to the county’s award winning recycling program. “This action allows us to continue working with our towns in providing the best possible recycling opportunities.”
The agreement outlines the proper use of the recycling centers and the acceptable recycling materials.
Ocean County operates two regional recycling centers. The Ocean County Northern Recycling Center is located off New Hampshire Avenue, Lakewood and the Ocean County Southern Recycling Center is located off Haywood Road in Stafford Township.
“In addition, the agreement provides our towns the benefit of participating in the county’s Recycling Revenue Sharing program which allows for the distribution of 50 percent of the county’s recycling revenue,” Lacey said. “This program provides municipalities a dividends based on the amount of material recycled.”
Since 1995, the County has distributed $14.9 million in recycling revenue sharing to participating municipalities. During that time, more than 1.3 million tons of materials have been recycled.
“Recycling comes with numerous benefits for our residents and towns,” said Freeholder Director Joseph H. Vicari. “Because of all the components of the program, including paint management, electronic recycling, household hazardous waste collections, paper shredding, and all the materials included in single stream recycling, we are saving landfill space and decreasing the amount of items dumped illegally.”
Lacey noted that next year marks the fifth year since the County implemented single-stream recycling.
“This has proven to be a great success as we see the recycling rate increase,” Lacey said. “Our residents have done a great job in embracing single stream recycling. Placing all materials into one bin at the curb has made the program as convenient as possible.
“Residents don’t have to bundle papers or place recyclables in plastic bags. As a matter of fact we urge them not to use plastic bags because they can damage the recycling machinery,” Lacey said. “All materials can remain loose and mixed together in one container.”
Ocean County officially opened The Single Stream Processing Center at the Northern Ocean County Recycling Center in October 2010.
“This has been a premier public/private partnership between Ocean County and
Waste Management Recycle America,” Lacey noted.
Waste Management made an investment of over $3 million to the single stream processing modifications, while the County contributed close to $1 million in replacing the aging baler, electrical upgrades and observation gallery modifications.
“Our residents and municipalities saw early on the benefits from this
project which made recycling easier,” Lacey said. “I encourage all of our residents to recycle. It really helps make a difference here in OceanCounty.”
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