Township Considers Single-Stream Recycling

The Morris County Municipal Utilities Authority wants to bring single-stream recycling to Chatham Township, if the township committee feels the cost is reasonable.

Kathleen Hourihan, district recycling coordinator of the MUA, made a presentation on single-stream recycling to the Chatham Township Committee on Thursday evening. Single-stream recycling, in which residents can put all their recyclables into one container without sorting, has been a topic of discussion in the township for several months.

Hourihan said the MUA has been providing the township with recycling service for 24 years and would like to try single-stream recycling for the rest of 2011 and the first half of 2012, at a 10 percent cost reduction. During that time, the MUA would evaluate its processes and identify its efficiencies before coming back to the township with a four-year contract.

She also said that the township could earn an additional 33 percent over last year in the sale of recycled materials. The recycling market saw a big crash a few years ago but it has since come back and is currently strong.

In addition to providing collection services at curbside and the recycling center, the MUA also wants to provide educational materials on single-stream recycling to township, including postcards that would be included with tax bills, new signs for the rolloff containers at the recycling center, and new labels for residents’ recycling containers. Hourihan said a member of the MUA staff is available to do presentations to civic groups.

She added that the township can stay with the MUA even if the committee opts to stay with dual-stream recycling, but, she said, “Single-stream makes a lot of sense.”

Mayor Nicole Hagner asked when single-stream recycling would go into effect, and Hourihan said within a week or two. Hagner said the township may go out to bid for a recycling vendor.

“The township is very interested in moving into the single-stream direction,” she said. “We are excited about the opportunity to go to single-stream. Last fall, the Girl Scouts came to us with the results of surveys they had done, and we learned a lot about how Chatham recycles.  Many people were recycling items that you didn’t yet accept. We were actually over-recycling.”

No formal action was taken on the matter.

In other business:

• Hagner thanked the township’s volunteer fire department for its hard work on two house fires in the township during the past two weeks.
• The committee approved liquor license renewals for CB Chatham, LLC, 522 Southern Blvd., and Chatham Wine & Liquor, 650 Shunpike Rd.
• The committee approved the appointment of Dustin A. Fawcett, Mike R. Rawson, Michael T. Zalis, Joshua A. Engelsman, Andrew S. Jansen and Matthew Behre to the Green Village Volunteer Fire Department.
• Hagner announced the committee meetings are now being broadcast on Comcast and Fios. She thanked Tom Salvas, governmental access TV and Bulletin Board manager, for all his work in getting the meetings broadcast.