AVALON – Last year, the Cape May County Municipal Utilities Authority (CMCMUA) offered local towns a one-year extension to agreements for solid waste and recycling disposal.
Instead of the usual multi-year arrangements, the one-year contract was justified by unprecedented turmoil in the world’s recycling process caused by a policy change, in China, the world’s largest recycled material buyer
Almost overnight, recycled material once sold for profit faced the prospect of heading to the landfill at a cost.
The MUA’s one-year agreement was intended to allow the organization time to find new customers for its recycled products.
The MUA hired a consultant to help locate distribution opportunities for the material, returning the municipalities with the offer of another one-year agreement.
The prospects for recycled materials are still too cloudy for the MUA to put a multi-year fee structure in place.
