County OKs Recycling Contract

The Monmouth County, NJ, Board of Freeholders approved a contract that will allow an Edison, NJ, recycling company to operate from the Monmouth County Reclamation Center in Tinton Falls.

Under the five-year deal, Garden State Recycling will utilize an existing shredder building at the center to collect recycable materials from surrounding municipalities and process glass into a product that can be used at the county's landfill -- at no cost to the county.

John Stanton, vice president of sales and marketing for Garden State, said Monmouth County municipalities will realize an immediate savings because his company will not charge them to take their commingled materials. Towns now pay between $10 and $45 per ton for a recycler to take their cans, bottles and plastic.

Keyport Mayor John Merla said last night that he had no details about the new program, but said "Anything that will help us is a plus." He said Keyport pays between $10 and $45 a ton for recyclables and the Garden State plan could mean as much as $50,000 returned to the town's coffers.

The contract stipulates that towns won't have to pay for Garden State to take their commingled materials as long as the towns bring the company paper as well. Stanton said the company will still pay market price for the paper.

"Since the landfill is taking the glass, we can make our profit on the plastic, aluminum, steel and paper," he said. "Everybody wins."

He noted that the county will save $20 a ton on sand, the material now used as leachate and fill for the landfill. Sand will be replaced with the glass aggregate produced at the new facility.

Eric J. Sapir, a Newark attorney who represented the county, said the company would pay the county fees that could add up to $10,000 per month in the first year of the contract and rise to approximately $25,000 in the second year.

Garden State will spend more than $800,000 to install a recycable materials system and glass pulverizing equipment in the old shredder building. The site had been used to shred solid waste -- as a means to maximize density -- before it was dumped into the landfill. The county now bales the waste before it goes in the landfill at another site so the building was underutilized, Sapir explained.

The county has the option to terminate the contract at any time. It can also renew the deal for another five years if it is successful. Asbury (New Jersey) Press Herald.