Plastic payoff in the works
By ROBERT LINNEHAN
The Cherry Hill Sun
5/9/2010

Who knew plastic bags could be so costly?

A new amendment to a township ordinance could possibly save Cherry Hill up to $100,000 a year, simply by prohibiting the use of plastic yard-waste bags. If adopted at a public hearing on May 10, the township’s residential waste haulers will only collect curbside lawn and tree debris stored in biodegradable bags or from open-top receptacles.

It’s a simple measure that could help save Cherry Hill thousands of dollars, Chief of Staff Dan Keashen said. By taking the bags out of the equation, Keashen said it will save time and money for the workers who have to remove and dispose of the bags before recycling the natural debris.

Keashen went on to note that Cherry Hill would prevent hundreds of thousands of pounds of thick, black plastic from entering the waste stream and being burned or buried in a landfill.

“This will be a change for people. It will provide a tremendous savings to the township, and it’s fairly intuitive and good for the environment,” he said. “It’s saving us money and helping the environment. The residents don’t really have to do anything different but think twice before going out to buy yard-waste bags.”

Keashen said residents can put their yard debris in their old recycling cans they used before receiving the RecycleBank units.

The township doesn’t process the yard waste within its borders, officials noted. Currently, tree or shrub fragments, twigs, leaves, and other dead vegetation placed curbside by residents once a week are collected by Republic Services and trucked to a farm in Gloucester County, where they are used in compost or mulch.

But the cost associated with recycling the outdoor debris is high, according to Mayor Bernie Platt, and that expense goes up with every plastic bag that must be manually removed from the collection drop-offs.

“I am well-aware that many households use this type of disposable receptacle for their yard waste. I’m also aware that the impending prohibition of plastic yard-bags will require a change in buying habits for many people,” Platt said. “However, significantly lowering the cost of disposing of our yard waste furthers several of my administration’s top priorities, and we consider it a win-win.”

Platt also reported that the amendment urged residents to try to keep grass clippings out of the yard debris stream. Officials contend that a typical yard mowing produces about 75 pounds of grass clippings, which can be used as a natural fertilizer and is costly for the township to throw away.

The municipality pays by volume for yard-waste recycling. According to Platt, “the cost-saving benefits speak for themselves.”

Two environmental advocacy groups in Cherry Hill have already come forward to endorse the new measure.

The Cherry Hill Environmental Advisory Committee and Sustainable Cherry Hill lauded the amendment for the significant impact it is expected to have on the number of large, unrecyclable plastic bags entering the region’s waste stream.