Recycling rates improve
By ROBERT LINNEHAN
The Cherry Hill Sun
6/13/2009

Several new recycling initiatives introduced in the township in the past year are improving Cherry Hill’s recycling averages. Three new programs were launched within the past year, which have given residents more options to increase their recycling rates.

Last July, Cherry Hill became the first township in Camden County to fully participate in the RecycleBank Program. The program offers homeowners incentives to increase their recycling rates. Each home is provided with a special 96-gallon recycle container that is able to monitor exactly how much each home recycles each week by scanning a barcode each time recycling is collected.

The amount recycled by each individual home is translated into RecycleBank Reward Points. The points can then be redeemed for coupons that residents can use to shop at hundreds of participating stores.

Since its full inception in July 2008 to April 2009, Communications Director Dan Keashen said the township has diverted 6,762 tons of material from its landfill. That equals a savings of about $433,000 in landfill tipping fees, he said.

Since the pilot program was initiated in late 2007, Keashen said the total tipping fee savings have been about $561,000.

Township residents have earned over $2.7 million in RecycleBank points from their efforts.

“As Cherry Hill moves closer to the first full year of our RecycleBank initiative, it is clear from the statistics, our township has implemented a highly successful program that has saved taxpayers more than $500,000, while we embrace the tenets of sustainability and shrink our carbon footprint,” Mayor Bernie Platt said. “Since the inception of RecycleBank, we have changed the face of recycling in Cherry Hill, and throughout the region. We are now a model for other towns throughout the world and have reached an unprecedented 50 percent ratio in our recycling to solid waste numbers this year.”

The township also set up an e-waste recycling center in April of 2008. The state passed the Electronic Waste Recycling Act in early 2008, which means e-waste recycling centers will be mandatory for all municipalities by 2010.

The center allows residents to drop off old cell phones, televisions, computers and computer monitors. It’s important to keep these harmful materials out of the waste stream, Keashen said, because they contain dangerous amounts of lead, mercury and other harmful chemicals.

The drop off point for the e-waste material is at the department of public works garage during regular business hours. The garage is located at 1 Perina Boulevard.

“We’re getting these materials out of the solid waste stream and, in turn, saving taxpayers money on tipping fees at the incinerator,” he said. “Those products also have chemicals that don’t break down and are hazardous to the environment. By parsing out those materials, we’re saving money and living in a cleaner society.”

The township recycled more than 41,000 pounds of e-waste in 2008, Keashen said.

The township also introduced its plastic bag recycling program, which has placed several containers around the township to collect plastic bags. Plastic bags seem to be everywhere, Keashen said, littering many parts of Cherry Hill.

“They’re ubiquitous. They end up in trees, yards, and we want to see them being recycled and put in their proper place. It’s not trash.

Those bags can be reused,” he said. “You can go to your local grocery store and see the same collection containers set up. We’re trying to get these things off the street, out of the solid waste stream, and create a cleaner society. “