There’s long been a push for the federal government to mandate nationwide recycling, but the power to encourage one of the basic tenets of environmental stewardship still rests with state governments.
Many states prefer to set up minimal recycling infrastructure and allow residents to participate on a strictly voluntary basis, but some states are taking an active role in pushing their populations to embrace recycling as a key component of everyday life.
One such state is New Jersey, which continues to excel at recycling nearly a quarter century after becoming the first state to initiate a statewide mandate.
Driven by its government’s commitment to improving and expanding state recycling programs, New Jersey has more than doubled the percentage of municipal solid waste (MSW) it recycles to 37.9 percent, which is well above the national average of 33.8 percent. When industrial and hazardous waste is factored in, New Jersey’s recycling rate rises to 59.1 percent, an increase from 57.3 percent in 2007.
Here’s how New Jersey transitioned from environmental deadbeat to national leader in recycling.
The Jersey Uprising
This rapid ecological improvement is a departure from New Jersey’s past. A solid waste crisis gripped the state in the 1980s, which New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) spokesman Lawrence Hajna said led to the passage of mandatory recycling legislation.
“We’re a densely populated state; we have limited land availability,” he said. “We recognized early on the importance of conserving landfill space, and it grew from there.”
The mandatory recycling legislation of 1987 set a goal for New Jersey to recycle half of its MSW by 1995, but it missed that goal by about 5 percent. The recycling percentage dipped rapidly over the next decade, due to federal court rulings that struck down state solid waste-flow rules and the expiration of programs that funded recycling efforts.
The state bottomed out at 33 percent of MSW recycled in 2003, before new legislation was proposed to reemphasize New Jersey’s recycling program.
Among other things, 2008’s Recycling Enhancement Act established a $3-per-ton tax on waste deposited at New Jersey solid waste facilities. Money from that tax, estimated to bring in as much as $33 million per year, goes to fund efforts to expand recycling, including providing funding for recycling education programs and market development.
Who Gets the Grants?
Most notably, 60 percent of the funding brought in by the tax on waste goes directly into the Municipal Recycling Tonnage Grant Program, which distributes grant money to counties and municipalities to help expand their recycling programs. In January, DEP announced $13 million in grant money that would be distributed to cities around New Jersey through the program.
“These grants are an investment in our future,” DEP Commissioner Bob Martin said in a press release. “Local governments will use this money to continue to build even stronger recycling programs as we all work to continue improving our recycling efforts.”
The grant money is assigned to the communities that have the highest recycling rates, creating an incentive-based system to drive increased recycling participation.
While that standard for distributing funds leaves low-recycling communities to fend for themselves, Hajna said using the money as an incentive is the most effective way to encourage communities to step up their recycling efforts.
“I think that, in general, people support recycling and want to do the right things,” he said. “It is our hope that everyone – all the counties, all municipalities – will take advantage of the opportunities that are available through the Recycling Tonnage Grant program, and work to achieve the goals that we all share.”
Hiring ‘Cheerleaders’
Hajna said one of the best ways for a struggling community to quickly enhance its recycling program is to hire a recycling coordinator to spearhead new recycling efforts.
“If a town has a recycling coordinator, a lot can happen,” he said. “A lot of cases, all a town really needs to do is focus in on hiring that person that will really be… the cheerleader for recycling.”
Jersey City, located just west of New York City, will receive $267,674, making it the top recipient of funds in 2011. Vineland, Newark and Clifton will also receive more than $200,000 in grant money.
Cities use that money for a variety of recycling-related purposes, from new facilities and staff to enhanced marketing plans.
“New Jersey’s recycling rates continue to trend upward,” said Guy Watson, chief of the DEP’s Bureau of Recycling and Planning. “We are seeing steady and encouraging increases in rates for a number of reasons, including expanded public outreach efforts, expansion of the types of materials municipalities are collecting, and more convenient recycling options, such as single-stream programs that enable residents to put all of their recyclables out for collection in one container.”
Hajna said the $13 million devoted to municipal grants is a significant increase over the $4-5 million that was at the DEP’s disposal in the past, but that it still doesn’t cover everything the DEP wishes it could.
“We would certainly like to be able to have more money, but the reality is what it is,” Hajna said. “We think this a good way to get people to start thinking, and start funding some of the programs they need to get kick-started.”
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