As Market Improves, Ocean County, NJ Resumes Distributing Recycling Revenue to Towns

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): Decades ago, Ocean County pioneered a recycling program under which municipal governments received a share of the revenue generated from the recyclable materials they collect – rather than pay a bill to dump more waste in the county landfill. The program has remained a success, but in recent years the recycled materials market has declined, sidelining the payments and for the first time generating a cost. But thanks to a remade recycling market, the program is getting back on track.

Ocean County officials recently announced revenue share levels for each participating town – the first time revenue sharing has been feasible since 2018. The county received about $29 per ton for its recycled materials on the open market. “We had a couple of lean years with the program, particularly in 2019 when we broke even and 2020 when we lost approximately $2 million,” said Anthony Agliata, the county’s planning director who leads the Solid Waste Management department. “In 2021 we made it up. We did fund the losses, and did not put that burden on the municipalities.”

This year, the market has improved to an even greater extent, Agliata said. For years, the bulk of the county’s recycled items went to China, but in 2018, Chinese authorities largely ended the importation of recycled goods. In the years since, Ocean County has seen new opportunities arise by exporting materials to Malaysia, India and Thailand, but the implementation of single-stream recycling and more technology has also made the materials useful at home.

Courtesy: www.wasteadvantagemag.com