Committeeman George Newberry Talks Trash Thursday

Committeeman George Newberry came to talk trash Thursday. And with the aid of his own garbage can, he did.

Newberry, a champion of the town's single stream recycling effort, gave an hour-long talk on the new recycling program at town hall Thursday.

The meeting, called by the Environmental Advisory Committee, was attended by about 35 residents.

The single stream program, which begins in about two weeks, will allow residents to place paper, including newspaper, office paper, junk mail, envelopes, magazines and flat cardboard into the same bin as glass bottles and jars, metal food and beverage containers and plastic bottles, including shampoo and detergent bottles.

"This is very easy to do,'' Newberry said at the top of his talk. "You can't make a lot of  mistakes. It has changed the way I think about trash, very honestly."

The new recycling program, which officials have said is expected to save the town up to $300,000 annually, goes into effect June 6.

"The Environmental committee is 100 percent behind single stream recycling,'' said Wilma Morrissey, who heads the committee.

Newberry said the effort began last year primarily as a way of saving money. For each ton of trash the town dumps at the Monmouth County landfill in Tinton Falls, the town pays $75, Newberry said. 

But for every ton of single stream recycling, the town gets paid, Newberry said, because the waste materials are sorted, bound and sold as commodities. 

The township has entered into a three-year contract with Waste Management Inc., which operates a sorting facility in Lakewood. For the first year, each ton of trash will net the township no less than $25. For the remaining two years, the rate is less, but the town is guaranteed not to have to pay anything to have the trash removed, Newberry said.

"Zero is still better than having to pay,'' he said.

The Department of Public Works will still collect trash, but instead of dumping in Tinton Falls, the single stream collections will go to the Lakewood facility, Newberry said.

The program will change slightly the curbside pickup schedule. Beginning next month, the township will no longer separately pick up newspapers and comingled recycling, Newberry said.

There's no need, he said, because everything goes in one can. Instead, single stream recycling will be picked up twice a month. Regular trash pickup will remain on the same schedule, Newberry said.

Newberry even brought in his own recycling can, retreving seemingly disparate items like cardboard, newspaper and empty milk bottles.

"I think its going to gain momentum as people begin to understand how easy it is,'' Newberry said.

Newberry said the town's goal is to possibly reduce the twice weekly trash pickups to once weekly, with a weekly single stream pickup. But for now, the township was going to keep the same trash pickup schedule. 

"We know there's going to be a learning curve,'' said Mayor Ann Marie Conte, who also attended the program. "And we're going to walk that with  you.''