Recycling pays, said Frank Sadeghi, Deputy Director of the Ocean County Board of Commissioners, before announcing that all 33 of the county’s municipalities will receive a check for their recent recycling efforts.

“I’m very pleased to announce our 2024 recycling revenue sharing program,” Sadeghi said. “Our towns work hard on recycling and they deserve to be rewarded and share the money the county collects.”

Towns will receive a total of $490,184 split between all of the municipalities based on the amount of material transported to the county’s recycling center.

The top 5 municipalities, by tonnage and payout are:

1.) Lakewood: 14,333.01 Tons $95,293.15
2.) Toms River: 12,680.57 Tons $84,306.88
3.) Brick: 7,821.16 Tons $51,999.05
4.) Stafford: 6,061.20 Tons $40,297.94
5.) Jackson: 4,326.33 Tons $28,763.64

“These numbers represent a significant increase compared to 2023 when the county shared $50,531 with our municipalities,” Sadeghi said.

He credited residents with carefully separating their recyclables from regular trash to ensure those materials are kept out of the Ocean County Landfill.

Sadeghi said the Ocean County Board of Commissioners also modernized the county’s recycling equipment.

“Higher revenue was made possible due to The Board of Commissioners’ investments into Ocean County’s recycling infrastructure, which helped generate this profit,” he said. “Our upgrades have also placed the county in a very good position for the future.

For example, a new “optical sorter” installed in May 2023 captured additional polypropylene (#5 plastic) to generate more revenue while also saving landfill costs, Sadeghi said.

More than 73,728 tons of material was recycled by Ocean County in 2024, resulting in a savings of $6,124,745 in landfill tipping fees.