CAPE MAY – The City Council is moving to help the Public Works Department after the department reported it is being overwhelmed by the amount of curbside recycling coming from some commercial establishments.

The department has appealed to the council for a recycling receptacle limit on both commercial businesses and residential units, citing an “extreme amount of curbside recycling.”

Public Works trucks pick up recycling across the city in five zones for residential and commercial units each week. The collected material must be driven to a county site in Burleigh.

The tonnage of material associated with certain commercial establishments in Cape May is creating significant inefficiencies. Public Works Director Eric Prusinski told the council that commercial customers accounted for 15 tons of recycling on one day in one zone. Prusinski said a limit is needed, with excess beyond that limit becoming the responsibility of the business to dispose of.

Cape May uses its own staff to pick up curbside recycling. The city moved recycling pickup in-house in 2019 following soaring increases in contract services. The problem, then countywide, was caused by a change in policy in China to substantially withdraw from the international recycling process. China had been the principal international customer purchasing the majority of American recycled products.

The ripple effect threw the recycling world into new and uncharted economic waters. Through it all the state mandate for recycling remained in effect. Prices soared for a service that once paid for itself. Each town struggled to find a solution, with Cape May investing in equipment to bring recycling pickup in-house.

At one point in the council’s discussion of the issue at its meeting on Sept. 3, data supplied by Public Works showed one commercial property with more than 1,000 gallons of recycling on a single day. Mayor Zach Mullock’s response was that this property should be paying for a contract recycler to pick it up.

Council member Maureen McDade asked about cost to the city. Prusinski said that there is no cost per ton for recycled material when it is brought to the county location in Burleigh. “If the material has been contaminated, there is a contamination charge,” he added. The city’s cost is manpower, equipment, vehicles and fuel.

The Public Works proposal is that residential units be limited to 192 gallons, which could incorporate two 96-gallon cans or four 48-gallon cans, or other configurations. Commercial customers would be limited to 384 total gallons, with condo locations treated as commercial establishments.

The point of the discussion, as City Manager Paul Dietrich put it, was “to find the line where the city’s obligation ends and a commercial business needs to arrange for its own pickup.”

The council ended up appointing McDade and Council member Shane Meier to work with Public Works, the solicitor and the city manager on refining an ordinance that would limit the city’s responsibility for excessive curbside recycling pickup.