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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