As NJ Celebrates Recycling – NJ Heads in the Wrong Direction 

Today the DEP released an announcement on America Recycles Day to inspire New Jersey residents to recycle. New Jersey was the first state to make recycling mandatory in 1987. Our state also reached a recycling rate of 63 percent in 2015. The DEP also promotes that New Jersey has been a leader in recycling for more than 30 years.

“Today is America Recycles Day and as we are supposed to recycle, New Jersey is headed in the wrong direction. Since 1990 recycling has dropped dramatically in New Jersey. In the early 1990’s we recycled over 50% of municipal and household waste and now we are only recycling 37.1% and some counties like Hunterdon are down to 27%. New Jersey’s plastic waste problem has also become an environmental and public health issue too,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “Today the DEP encourage New Jersey residents to recycle on America Recycles Day but our state’s recycling program is garbage. If we want New Jersey to become a leader in recycling then the Murphy Administration should stop robbing the Clean Energy Fund and come up with a better recycling program.”

Recycling rates in our state are dropping but there are a number of steps the Murphy Administration and the Legislature can take to reverse this trend by encouraging more recycling. The Legislature and Governor Murphy can act now to improve recycling and litter by supporting legislation like S2776(Smith) and SCR137 (Smith) which places a ban on single use plastics like plastic bags, plastic straws, and polystyrene and establishes a plastic recycling marketplace. A Bottle Bill is a critical step to increasing recycling rates. New Jersey only recycles 50% of cans and bottles while Michigan, with a Bottle Bill, recycles 97%.

“Every year we pick up 6 million pounds of cans and bottles and other floatables along our roadways. Litter is a major source of pollution for our rivers and bays but increasing incinerator use is not a viable way to address our waste stream. That is why It is critical that our state legislature quickly move forward with legislation that will reduce our plastic waste and solid and create a better recycling program for Governor Murphy to sign. The less we recycle the more greenhouse gases and pollution we have from emissions from landfills and emissions from manufacturing new products each time.,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “The Murphy Administration must improve our recycling program or else they will turn New Jersey from the Garden State to the garbage state.”