Local governments will share $14.3 million in grants to further enhance recycling efforts, based on 2016 recycling performance in their communities, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Catherine R. McCabe announced.
The recycling tonnage grants are awarded through the state’s Recycling Enhancement Act and are funded through a $3 per ton surcharge on trash disposed at solid waste facilities statewide, according to a press release from the DEP.
The DEP then allocates that money back to municipalities based on how much recycling each community reports accomplishing during a particular calendar year.
Area municipalities that will receive a grant for their 2016 recycling efforts (the most recent year for which data is available) are as follows: Allentown, $1,900; Colts Neck, $12,754; Englishtown, $2,934; Farmingdale, $10,155; Freehold Borough, $16,293; Freehold Township, $91,879; Howell, $39,707; Manalapan, $13,077; Marlboro, $119,531; and Millstone Township, $7,934.
Jackson and Upper Freehold Township are not receiving a grant, according to the DEP.
Grants are based on materials collected and recycled in a municipality or county. The grants are to be used to further improve a community’s recycling rate either by funding a recycling coordinator position, sponsoring household hazardous waste collection events, providing recycling receptacles and pickup in public places, maintaining leaf composting operations, conducting educational outreach about the importance of recycling, or implementing curbside recycling pickup programs, according to the press release.
For calendar year 2016, New Jersey generated 9.7 million tons of municipal solid waste, with 4.26 million tons recycled and 5.4 million tons disposed.
This resulted in a slight increase in the recycling rate, to 44 percent, from the year prior. New Jersey’s recycling rate exceeds the national recycling rate average of 34 percent, but is below the state’s recycling goal of 50 percent, according to the press release.
Overall, New Jersey in 2016 generated 22.6 million tons of solid waste, which includes municipal waste plus construction debris and other types of non-municipal waste. Of the total collected, 13.9 million tons were recycled and 8.7 million tons were disposed, for an overall recycling rate of 61 percent. The overall rate for 2015 was 63 percent.