Chatham Township to Receive More Than $20K in Recycling Grants

Chatham Township will receive $21,273.30 in grant money from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to assist in local recycling efforts, according to figures obtained from the NJDEP website.

Chatham Borough will also receive $3,553.11 in grants, and Morris County Municipalities will receive a total of $712,533.76 all together.

According to information provided by the DEP in a release, each individual grant is based on the recycling success local governments demonstrated in 2008.

Morris County municipalities are marked to receive the seventh largest sum of grant money of the 21 counties in the state. Bergen County's towns will receive the most at $1,676,647.08, while those in Salem County will receive the least at $101,766.65.

In the past year, both the borough and the township have instituted a number of improvements to their recycling programs. Chatham Borough switched to single stream recycling through Waste Management at the beginning of January, and the township's Environmental Commission want a similar program.

Both towns are certified through Sustainable Jersey, and Chatham Township to install a composter at Chatham High School.

Of all the Morris County municipalities, Parsippany-Troy Hills is slated to receive the most from the DEP at $75,891.75. Randolph is second at $43,948.67. The least amount will go to Victory Gardens ($1,033.51).

The DEP’s release said the grant money is made available through the Recycling Enhancement Act. The grant program is funded by a $3 per ton surcharge on trash disposed at solid waste facilities. Municipal governments receive 60 percent of the money the fund generates. The balance is awarded to county solid-waste management and household hazardous-waste collection programs, county and state promotional efforts, and recycling research.

DEP Commissioner Bob Martin said the department is providing $13 million in grants to assist municipalities and counties throughout the state.

“These grants are an investment in our future,” Martin said in the 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. Recycling is a priority for the DEP. It is important for the environment by conserving landfills and resources, and it generates tens of thousands of jobs in industries that collect, process and reuse recycled materials.”

The municipalities receiving the five highest grant awards this year, according to the DEP, are: Jersey City (Hudson) $267,674; Vineland (Cumberland) $255,954; Newark (Essex) $232,709; Clifton (Passaic) $207,094; and North Bergen (Hudson) $172,539.

According to the DEP, New Jersey recycled more than 13 million tons of the 22.1 million tons of solid waste generated in 2008 for an overall recycling rate of 59.1 percent. That rate was 57.3 percent in 2007. In Morris County, the percentage was 57.8 percent in 2008. Cumberland County’s 72.6 percent recycling rate was tops in 2008. Nine counties had a greater rate than Morris County in 2008.