Heightened Enforcement at Recycling Center Leads to Rebates

VILLAS – If you are headed to Lower Township’s Recycling Center, don’t try to drive past Barry Thomas without pointing out the center’s sticker or presenting proof of residency.
Thomas, a Lower Township Public Works employee, greets vehicles from inside a booth at the recycling center as they come into the center and does a check for a “Lower Township Recycling Depot” sticker. If they don’t have a sticker, proof of lower township residency, such as a driver’s license or utility bill, is required to go any further. Once that proof is presented, Thomas verifies their address, issues them a sticker and directs them to park by one of the various dumpsters used to collect plastics, metals, cardboard, yard debris and other items.
Only one sticker is issued per household and they should be placed on the driver’s side bumper or inside on the review mirror with the sticker facing toward the front windshield.
“We’ve been tightening up the system,” said Lower Township Manager Mike Voll. “In that past too many people, who were not Lower Township residents, were using a Lower Township facility instead of using the county’s center in Mayville. I noticed that the tonnage was going way up and knew we had to be better about enforcing the stickers and proof of residency.”
The result, Voll added, has been saving the Lower Township residents money both in recycling rebates and landfill tipping fees.
“Lower Township residents shouldn’t have to pay because people from outside the township want to use our facility,” he said.
Recently the Cape May County Municipal Utilities Authority issued a recycling rebate for $64,617.93 for their efforts in recycling for 2013. Those rebates are given to municipalities based on the amount of cans, bottles, papers and rigid cardboard that were processed at the township’s recycling center. That rebate is in addition to the added savings of $67.25 a ton for landfill tipping fees.
Lower Township’s Recycling Center is open Thursday through Monday from 7 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. The center is closed Tuesday, Wednesday and holidays.
Acceptable items at the center include: Styrofoam, grass, television sets, pool covers, vacuum cleaners, rigid plastic toys and other plastics, metals, aluminum cans, glass cardboard, papers and grills. Accepted household appliances include refrigerators, air conditioners and emptied lawn mowers. Branches that are a maximum of seven feet in length and six inches in diameter and leaves are also accepted.
For more information on the recycling center, visit towsnipoflower.org or call 609-884-0898.