Recyclables and Trash Don’t Mix

COURT HOUSE – Ken Hamann is retired from a career as a teacher so he finds himself home more mornings than he once did. Hamann recently noticed some extra cardboard he wanted to get into his recyclable can just as the Gold Metal truck was rumbling down his street for the weekly pick up. Moving quickly to gather up the forgotten cardboard, Hamann made it to the curb just in time. It was then that he said he noticed something that disturbed him.
According to Hamann, the Gold Metal employees took his recyclables and his regular trash and deposited both in the same truck. “I spend all week separating these things and they just threw them together,” he said.
Soon after, he said, the second truck, the one that is scheduled to pick up just the recyclables, also came down his street but found only already-empty containers. The situation bothered Hamann. He believes in recycling, putting his own time and energy into keeping things separate all week, and understands that there is taxpayer money involved as well.
Hamann called Public Works in Middle Township, the municipality in which he lives, but says the person he spoke to showed little interest. The individual took some very basic information and Hamann expected a call back and claimed he never got one.
Persistent, Hamann next called the Cape May County MUA. He spoke with Linda Crumbock, the MUA’s Recycling Coordinator. Hamann reported that Crumbock indicated this was a “recurring problem.”
While the phone conversation may have gone as Hamann remembered it, subsequent checking has led the MUA to say that no significant problem exists. Crumbock’s diligence checking with both Gold Metal, the contractor for Middle Township, and with the MUA’s landfill personnel, led her to conclude that the problem, if it occurred as Hamann described, is not a widespread one “or we would be seeing it at the landfill.”
One theory that might have explained a situation like the one that Hamann experienced was a shortage of trucks or manpower, but the second truck did arrive, according to Hamann. In any case, John Coggins, head of Gold Metal Environmental’s Cape May Division based in Woodbine, said, “Gold Metal does not and would not instruct our crews to mix recyclables with trash under any circumstances.”
The reference to a “recurring problem” in Hamann’s initial call with Crumbock may have been her memory of a letter written to Gold Metal about a similar complaint in Woodbine. “The concerns expressed by the Borough of Woodbine are largely due to noncompliance and improper set out by the residents,” Coggins said. In the future, he said, “noncompliant material” will be tagged and left at the curb.
John Baron, Assistant Director at the MUA, explained that recycling is an important concern for the municipalities. Aside from the clear desire to do the environmentally right thing, there is money for the municipalities in that material. Currently, about $400,000 is split among county municipalities based on volume of recyclable material brought to the landfill.
In addition, municipalities pay to have every truckload of regular trash dumped at the landfill and do not pay for the dumping of recyclables. Any significant mixing of the two would cost the municipalities in two ways, by lowering the volume of separate recyclables and by having to pay to dump what otherwise would be free.
The MUA, according to Crumbock, is confident that there is not widespread mixing of recyclables and trash by Gold Metal trucks or their controls at the landfill would catch it and set off red flags. Trust in those controls is the bottom line.
Hamann is confident that he saw what he says he saw. “Our crews are given specific information on what they are to collect on a daily basis and our policies are reinforced with continuous supervision of collections operations and personnel,” Coggins said.
Crumbock’s job is to continue to educate people about the importance of recycling so that Coggins does not have to deal with “noncompliant and improper set out.” In the end, the only way to be certain that things are working properly is through the controls at the landfill.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.