FREEHOLD – A public hearing on Monmouth County’s amendment to its Solid Waste Management Plan will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 26 in the Freeholders’ Meeting Room, 2nd floor of the Hall of Records.

 

The plan serves as an inventory, appraisal and policy document for guiding waste management activities within the County and is designed to increase recycling, provide for future solid waste disposal capacity and improve statutory compliance and enforcement.

 

Because recycling rates have declined in Monmouth County and throughout New Jersey, a major focus of the revised plan is to increase the types and quantities of materials being recycled. The county intends to accomplish this by mandating the separation and recovery of additional materials, increasing the convenience of appropriate recycling containers, providing more convenient recycling outlets, stepping up enforcement of recycling requirements and promoting educational programs.

 

Another significant component of the County District Solid Waste Plan is the listing of solid waste and recycling haulers serving Monmouth County, and a list of all solid waste and recycling facilities located within the County. It also looks at the county’s remaining landfill capacity and discusses continuing work to provide sufficient future disposal capacity.

 

The plan provides a historical perspective, and describes existing, ongoing and proposed programs and activities. Each New Jersey county is required to have a plan, pursuant to state law approved in 1977 and subsequent directives of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Over the years, additional state requirements via statutory or regulatory changes have resulted in amendments to the plan, the most notable being legislated mandatory recycling.

 

The first Monmouth County Solid Waste Management Plan was adopted in 1979. The Monmouth County Reclamation Center, the first county-owned and operated disposal facility in New Jersey, has served as the cornerstone of the county’s waste management plans since it opened in October 1976.

 

For more information about the meeting or the plan, contact the county’s solid waste coordinator Larry Zaayenga at (732) 431-7460 or visit the county’s Web site at www.visitmonmouth.com. A copy of the proposed amendment to the plan is posted on the county’s Web site as well.