The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has awarded more than $25 million in grants to support litter cleanup efforts across the state, including over $171,000 designated for Lakewood Township.
The funding is part of the state’s annual Clean Communities program, which provides resources to municipalities and counties for litter abatement, public education, and enforcement initiatives. Lakewood will receive $171,493 to support local cleanup efforts, including removing debris from public spaces, maintaining stormwater systems, and organizing volunteer initiatives.
Statewide, $25.2 million in grants is being distributed, with $22.4 million allocated to municipalities and $2.8 million to counties. The funding is derived from taxes on businesses that produce litter-generating products, as well as penalties collected from litter-related violations.
Acting DEP Commissioner Ed Potosnak said the program helps towns like Lakewood maintain cleaner public spaces without overburdening local budgets.
“By partnering with the Clean Communities Council to provide this critical funding, the DEP is ensuring that municipalities and counties can keep their communities healthy and clean without bearing the costs of these initiatives alone,” Potosnak said in a statement.
The program is administered in partnership with the New Jersey Clean Communities Council, which oversees reporting and implementation across all 21 counties and 558 municipalities in New Jersey. The council also supports volunteer-driven efforts such as Adopt-a-Highway and Adopt-a-Beach programs.
In Ocean County, several municipalities also received funding, including Toms River ($267,494), Brick ($200,263), Jackson ($140,268), and Manchester ($132,007).
The woods alongside and in prospect square are disgusting and full of trash.
Is it township owned?
No need to advertise your mess!
Seriously, I wouldn’t be proud that my community couldn’t police common areas of litter. Locally I see road crews, people working off their fines etc in my county. We also have neighborhood groups that pick places in town to do cleanup. (Not in the tristate area.)
Money should be used to hire an inspector to make sure people are taking care of their own properties.
I’m happy to hear about this grant to help keep Ocean County clean. However, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If people would not litter and would make sure their trash goes into the trash cans, there wouldn’t be so much to clean up. I have been living on a busy corner property for a few decades and in the last few years, I can hardly keep up with the litter that blows onto my property. It wasn’t always like this. The litter is coming from all over and it means that people are littering more. Please discard your trash properly AND TEACH YOUR CHILDREN TO DO SO ALSO.
I agree people throw trash on the ground always they put garbage cans out and if the garbage falls on to the ground they leave it there to blow into some ones yard or left in the street to blow around kids throw candy wrappers on the ground with out thinking twice about it people should stop being so selfish and start respecting their town throw garbage where it belongs in the garbage can