Cranbury residents are being urged to keep prohibited items like plastic bags out of their recycling containers.
Mayor Glenn R. Johnson said on Oct. 22 that the Middlesex County Improvement Authority, which has a contract with the town to pick up recycling, is concerned “about the cleanliness of the recycling stream.”
He said some materials cannot be recycled, like plastic grocery bags. Other prohibited items include shredded paper, hardback books, plastic lids or caps, garden hoses, electrical wires, waxed paper or cardboard, among other things, according to the MCIA.
“They are saying that if the people who pick up the recycling see some of these other materials in the bin, they are basically going to leave it at the curb,” Johnson said during a Township Committee meeting.
Paul J. Matacera, the recycling director at the MCIA, wrote an Oct. 8 letter to the town in which he said that “due to the world geopolitical and economic changes going around us, the market for single stream recycled materials has changed significantly.”
Committeeman Daniel P. Mulligan III pointed to those global forces impacting recycling. China used to be the globe’s largest importer of plastic waste.
“They have changed their laws and their rules and they are not taking in as much of the same types of plastics as they used to,” he said.
In New Jersey, recycling is mandated by law. Cranbury is one of 16 Middlesex County towns that have an agreement with the MCIA for recycling pickup.
“Contaminated single stream recycling is no longer easily accepted by recycling facilities in state,” Matacera wrote. “As a result, the contractor who provides service to our county’s recycling program is now scrutinizing recycling materials from homes and businesses. This is to make sure they comply with the contract provisions and industry requirements for contamination.”