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Back to DEP News Release "Commissioner Campbell Recognizes Statewide Efforts Promoting Recycling"

2004 RECYCLING AWARD RECIPIENTS
AND PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS

AWARD CATEGORY: INSTITUTION/SCHOOL
AWARD RECIPIENT: Harmony Township School

In this predominantly rural community, Harmony Township School is the hub of substantial community activity. Spearheaded by the school’s head of maintenance, and with the cooperation of the staff and students, the school conducts a school recycling program that includes paper, cardboard, newspaper, aluminum and steel cans, glass, plastic, batteries, fluorescent tubes, telephone books, textbooks, and computers. Each Friday, the students and teachers utilize shopping carts to collect the recyclable materials found in the classrooms and offices throughout the buildings. The custodial staff then sorts the materials for monthly trips to the Warren County Recycling Center. Additionally, the school has coordinated the recycling of aluminum tabs with the local Girl Scouts Troops who hold their meetings in the facility. The tabs are then taken to Ronald McDonald House for recycling, and the dollars received from this recycling effort help families of children who need special hospital services. The school also serves as a drop-off for telephone book collection.

AWARD CATEGORY: INSTITUTION/SCHOOL
AWARD RECIPIENT: Lacey Township Board of Education

The educational program offered as standard curriculum by the Lacey Township Board of Education emphasizes a commitment to recycling and the environment. The 6 schools in the district are provided with 4 cubic yard containers to facilitate collection of commingled containers. Containers are also provided at all schools for cardboard and paper. Newspaper is collected in a central location in all schools and brought to the Township’s Recycling Center by their janitorial staff.

The school district has also implemented recycling programs sponsored by the PTA to expand to non-traditional materials such as used computer ink cartridges, pop-top cans, household batteries, cell phones and eyeglasses. The collection of these items is coordinated through the Environmental Technology Conservation Exchange Program. The school programs also promote environmental awareness through a variety of activities including poster and essay contests, organized litter cleanups, Earth Day/Arbor Day plantings, and mini-presentations.

AWARD CATEGORY: COUNTY RECYCLING COORDINATOR
AWARD RECIPIENT: Richard Hills, Middlesex County

Richard Hills is proactive in addressing Middlesex County’s solid waste and recycling issues. Middlesex County has achieved the distinction of being the only county in the state to reach a 60% recycling rate for 8 straight years. During his tenure as head of the Division of Solid Waste Management, Middlesex has begun a number of programs that extend beyond curbside collection of paper and containers to include a Paint Drop-Off Program, a Consumer Electronics Recycling Program, a Household Battery Recycling Program, a Tire Drop-Off Program, and a CFC Recycling Incentive Program. This year, under his guidance, the Middlesex County Division of Solid Waste Management provided grants to municipalities under the newly created Recycling Enhancement Grant program. Mr. Hills is currently working on an updated recycling tonnage grant computer program and a mercury thermometer exchange.

AWARD CATEGORY: OUTREACH/MEDIA
AWARD RECIPIENT: Barbara Fiedler, Galloway Township

Ms. Fiedler has developed an extensive outreach program for recycling in Galloway Township. She has developed brochures, posters, flyers, and display advertising for 2 local newspapers. She also utilizes the township website to promote new recycling programs, such as cell phone, electronics and ink jet cartridge collection programs. She has implemented “Recirculation”, a used goods program that is run through the local government access cable channel. She also updates the Home Waste Audit Manual annually and uses it as a tool to teach residents source reduction techniques. Ms. Fiedler also developed the Green Holiday Guide and has made it part of the information packet provided to new residents. The Family Guide to Composting and Creating Backyard Wildlife Habitat is updated and distributed through the schools every other year, reaching over 5000 students and their families. Ms. Fiedler has also been able to improve business recycling by using the Galloway Business Association as a vehicle to distribute materials she produced promoting business recycling.

AWARD CATEGORY: COUNTY RECYCLING PROGRAM
AWARD RECIPIENT: Atlantic County Utilities Authority

The Atlantic County Utilities Authority provides recycling collection services to 20 of the County’s 23 municipalities, including weekly service to the municipalities’ businesses and institutions. In order to effectively serve the more than 250,000 county residents, the ACUA is implementing innovative collection methods using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software in the trucks to automate collection routes. Using GIS has increased efficiency and reduced missed stops leading to satisfied customers and ever-increasing recycling rates.

The ACUA recently implemented the American Plastics Council’s “All Plastic Bottles” campaign in an attempt to achieve a higher recycling rate for plastic, and provides curbside collection of rechargeable batteries, hosts monthly paint/motor oil/anti-freeze/auto battery collections and three annual household hazardous waste collection days. These innovations serve to supplement the already successful and comprehensive recycling program that includes regional yard waste collection and processing, and recycling of metal, tires, concrete, clean wood, stumps, 5 gallon plastic buckets, plastic film from farms and shrink wrap from boats.

In an attempt to increase recycling in 2004, the ACUA created a new recycling brochure and worked with its municipalities to determine the effectiveness of a direct mail campaign to all residents and businesses in the community.

For the first half of 2004, residential recycling was up 1.2% and commercial recycling was up 9.8%.

AWARD RECIPIENT: MUNICIPAL RECYCLING PROGRAM
AWARD CATEGORY: Borough of Woodcliff Lake

The Borough of Woodcliff Lake provides a unique residential only sanitation and source separated recycling system. The key to the success of the recycling program is the Ecology Facility, opened in 1973, which now accepts 16 items for recycling, including brush and tree parts, vehicle and household batteries, electronics and motor oil. The facility is always manned when open and is open 3 days per week. Approximately 600 cars per day use the facility on Saturdays and Sundays. The facility brings in 90% of the recycling which cuts down on the Borough’s collection costs.

At this facility, the Borough is able to accommodate the employment needs of special education individuals. The success of this facility and this program is due at least in part to its close proximity to the Borough’s sporting complex. Residents can drop off their recyclables while spending time at the complex. Residents pay a $5.00 annual fee for the convenience of using the facility. Real estate agents frequently bring potential local homebuyers to see the Ecology Facility firsthand.

The Borough publishes three recycling newsletters per year for its residents, and also makes current county and municipal recycling information available on its website. The Borough also provides educational programs to schools, senior citizen groups, scouting groups, and municipal government staff.

AWARD CATEGORY: PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP
AWARD RECIPIENT: Ricoh Corporation

Ricoh Corporation is a leading supplier of office automation equipment and electronics, with sales exceeding $2.8 billion in 2003. Ricoh established an Environmental Management System that embraces green concepts such as conserving and recycling resources, conserving energy, and preventing pollution. Through the inception of their comprehensive end-of-life equipment demanufacturing program, they have recycled over 14 million pounds of obsolete products, including competitive trade-in equipment. Ricoh has absorbed the processing cost of $3.5 million since the start of the program in 2000. Ricoh works diligently to minimize the use of materials and energy resources in the design, manufacture and distribution of its products and employs efficient systems for recovering resources from equipment that has reached the end of its useful life. Using state-of-the-art demanufacturing systems, Ricoh is recovering 95% of the material content from this equipment. Their zero-waste-to-landfill operations at their manufacturing facilities are based on the idea of returning resources used in business activities to the natural environment. Their designated recycling centers in the U.S. and Canada receive used products, then process and separate them into commodity streams of steel and aluminum and recycle the remaining components to recover the copper and precious metal.

In addition to their end-of-life program, Ricoh guarantees that 30% recycled content papers will work in all of their imaging products.

Ricoh has opened an Environmental Multimedia Education Center in its showrooms in New York, Chicago and San Francisco to promote the concept of a “green partnership”. In addition, the company has held educational seminars for its government and large business clients. Green promotional activities and recycling center visits are offered at their service personnel meetings throughout the country.

AWARD CATEGORY: RECYCLING INDUSTRY
AWARD RECIPIENT: Hesstech, LLC

Hesstech is a permitted Class D universal waste recycling facility that accepts electronic equipment such as computers and monitors for reuse, recycling and demanufacturing. Hesstech also manages laboratory equipment and is permitted to manage mercury-containing materials such as thermometers, thermostats and fluorescent lamps. The company’s self-imposed zero landfill policy demonstrates their commitment to waste reduction by dedicating their resources to find reuse or recycling options for all of the material that they manage. Hesstech also maintains a no export of non-working equipment policy. Ongoing since its inception, Hesstech meets the needs of its Fortune 1000 clients through development of a proprietary database specifically designed to track electronics from cradle-to-grave. This innovative tracking system allows its clients the assurance that all equipment will be completely dismantled or fully inventoried based on their needs. Downstream markets for the materials leaving Hesstech are audited for proper permits, recycling practices and housekeeping procedures.

Since September 2001, Hesstech has managed over 375,000 pounds of electronics, 140 mercury-containing devices and 4800 linear feet of fluorescent light bulbs from Middlesex County residents and municipal governments. Additionally, Hesstech manages over 100 commercial and government accounts. In 2003, total outgoing material from Hesstech that was reused, recycled or demanufactured was 1,400,614 lbs.

AWARD CATEGORY: SOURCE REDUCTION
AWARD RECIPIENT: Bergen County Utilities Authority

The Bergen County Utilities Authority, in a joint public-private partnership with United Water, BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) and the Bergen Co. Dept. of Health Services, introduced the Bergen County Mercury Thermometer Swap Program in 2004. This program allowed residents to properly dispose of mercury thermometers and receive new digital ones in their place.

BD donated a supply of 5000 digital thermometers and United Water included information about the program in their WaterWays publication that was sent to 170,000 Bergen County residents. The BCUA developed a mercury awareness and thermometer swap brochure. The BD and BCUA each printed 5000 brochures for distribution to all Bergen County libraries, schools, environmental commissions, municipal health departments, and at the BCUA Household Hazardous Waste collection events, composter sale, tire amnesty events, and at computer recycling events. The total number of mercury thermometers collected to date is 3,385.

AWARD CATEGORY: COMMISSIONER’S AWARD
AWARD RECIPIENT: Audrey Rockman

Audrey Rockman has an educational background in Management, Housing and Family Development and has worked in the field of home and personal organization since 1985. Her work has been featured on various cable networks and in many newspaper articles. She has taught “clutter control” classes in more than 25 communities. She has taught continuing education classes at the YMCA, the Rutgers Community Health Plan, and numerous women’s centers, and has presented in-service programs for school systems. She has developed redistribution directories to give declutterers and bargain hunters specific local information on where to buy, sell, trade, consign, recycle and donate all types of pre-owned items. Last year, with financial assistance from the NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection, Ms. Rockman developed the redistribution manual entitled “A Place For Everything” focusing on recycling and reuse opportunities for specialty items in Mercer, Middlesex and Monmouth Counties.

AWARD CATEGORY: COMMISSIONER’S AWARD
AWARD WINNER: Lumberton Township, Burlington County

Burlington County recently sponsored a pilot project to improve recycling rates at apartment and condominium developments. The county had determined that average curbside recycling participation rates are 75%, but multifamily recycling rates are as low as 25%. Lumberton Township was selected for the pilot because it has a range of complexes that represent a cross-section of the complexes found throughout the county and the township recognized that increasing recycling rates would translate into significant tax savings to the town.

Burlington County inspected solid waste and recycling containers at each of seven multifamily complexes, and subsequently established recycling goals for each complex. The County and Lumberton met with the complexes and gave them specific recommendations for improving their recycling rates. These included increasing the number of recycling locations, purchasing new recycling containers and increasing public education. The county provided recycling brochures and new signs for the dropoff locations. Each site was eventually reinspected and all the complexes showed a significant improvement in their recycling rate. All seven multi-family complexes increased their recycling rates by an average of 40% (with one complex increasing by nearly 115%) for projected savings of $15,000 to the township this year.

AWARD CATEGORY: COMMISSIONER’S AWARD
AWARD WINNER: Anheuser-Busch – Newark Brewery

The Anheuser-Busch Newark Brewery has implemented a comprehensive recycling program resulting in a better –than 95% recycling rate for brewery generated waste materials. In 2003, the brewery generated approximately 121,000 tons of waste, and of that amount, the brewery recycled nearly 119,000 tons. Among other items, the facility recycled over 100,000 tons of spent grains, which are used as cattle feed and in land applications. Given the current universe of reported food waste recycling activities in the state, the Newark Anheuser-Busch brewery accounts for nearly 40% of all food waste recycled in the state. Additionally, the brewery also reported recycling glass, ferrous metal, corrugated, plastic strapping, aluminum, beechwood chips, office paper, scrap wood and batteries.

Additionally, 60% of the glass bottles purchased by this Anheuser-Busch facility contain approximately 50% post-consumer recycled material.

 

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Last Updated: January 3, 2005