Recycling efforts paying off for Ocean towns

Municipalities participating in Ocean County's recycling program will share more than $555,000 as part of the county's ongoing recycling revenue sharing program.

"This is a great return for the recycling efforts put forth by Ocean County's residents," Freeholder Director John P. Kelly said. "Recycling continues to provide both economical and environmental benefits in the county."

Freeholder James F. Lacey, who serves as liaison to the county's recycling program, announced that the county will distribute a total of $555,607 to its municipalities.

"Since we began this program in 1995, Ocean County has returned almost $9 million to its municipalities for participation in the program," Lacey said. "Towns have been able to use these funds to provide improvements to recycling programs or to help support other programs. This return certainly serves as incentive to continue our efforts when it comes to recycling."

The revenue comes from the sale of recyclables collected at Ocean County's regional recycling centers.

The payout amounts for the six-month period from January to July are based on $17.28 per ton of material, according to a press release from the county.

"This is one of our highest payouts," Lacey noted. "We have seen an increase in the market prices for a number of recyclable commodities including plastics, steel and aluminum."

Lacey said recycling not only provides a dividend to municipalities through the revenue sharing program, but also helps to lower the amount spent on tipping fees at the Ocean County landfill.

"By recycling 32,000 tons of materials, municipalities saved more than $2,241,000 in tipping fees at the landfill and still shared $555,000 in a six-month period," Lacey said. "These are great reasons to focus more of an effort on residential recycling and to encourage greater participation from the homeowner."

The following is the list of local municipalities and the amount they are scheduled to receive: Lakewood, $89,755 and Plumsted, $4,407.