Wyckoff Continues Push for Recycling

When trash collection in Wyckoff resumes a bi-weekly summer schedule in July, residents will be able to bring more of their trash curbside. But even with trash collection doubling, the township would prefer you try to cut the junk in half.

Wyckoff restructured its garbage contract last year, effective in January, in a move that collection of grass clippings and doubled recycling pickups, which the township committee estimated at the time will save taxpayers $50,000 this year.

The move continued a push toward a “Nifty Fifty” recycling goal—a target of 50 percent recyclables in the municipality’s curbside collections—that, if reached, the township says would .

The township began asking residents to decrease their trash output and push for the goal heading into 2010, and though the environmental commission and Green Team have worked to reinforce the effort from publicizing and educating residents about the township’s recycling program to distributing composts, the push has so far come up short of the target.

“When it was initially started there was a jump. But it’s been frustrating because for the past few years we’ve been stuck around 29 percent,” said environmental commission chair Harriet Shugarman.

“That’s an okay rate, and it’s pretty good relative to the rest of the state, but it’s not our target.”

And the green intentions have found admirers beyond Wyckoff; back when the township began promoting the effort, the state assembly unanimously passed a resolution applauding the sustainability effort.

Both Shugarman and township officials would like to see more, though. Under the municipality’s garbage contract, trash collection is billed by tonnage—but recyclables, which have a market value, can be hauled away at no additional cost to taxpayers.

According to Shugarman, the commission is “hopeful and confident” that the increased recycling pickups are making a dent in the goal, and she said that they’ve seen an increase in recycling since the town restructured its curbside collection, though it remains to be seen whether the full 2013 statistics will show sustained progress.

Before the renegotiated contract, when recycling pickups occurred only once every two weeks, she added, residents complained to her of having to throw out recyclables for lack of space in their cans.

Residents can recycle glass, cardboard, paper and plastics, except Styrofoam, which is sometimes marked as recyclable, on the curb. Scrap metal, yard waste or small appliances like televisions or computers can be brought to the recycling center six days a week, and residents can also schedule curbside recycling pickup of large household appliances on Wednesdays by calling 201-891-7000 ext. 101.