RED BANK: PLASTIC FILM RECYCLING TO BEGIN

Pails for segregating plastic film for recycling will be available for pickup October 16. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank residents can now begin setting aside plastic film products for recycling.

Starting November 3, the borough will make monthly collections of everything from dry-cleaning bags to boat wrap.

A sorting guide explains what can be recycled under the program. (Click to enlarge.)

Under a one-year agreement entered with S.C. Johnson & Sons in June, Red Bank became the fourth New Jersey municipality to team up with the consumer products giant to recycle film packaging. (The others are Bradley Beach, Loch Arbour and Matawan.)

Materials eligible for recycling include grocery bags; bread bags; food storage bags, including Ziploc bags; newspaper bags; bubble wrap; shrink wrap, including that used with multipacks of bottled beverages; and boat wrap.

All materials must be free of debris and other matter. Candy wrappers, multi-layer chip bags, diapers and feminine products should not be recycled.

Why separate film from trash or even other recyclables? According to Councilwoman Kate Triggiano and Environmental Commission Chairwoman Nancy Facey-Blackwood, who jointly responded to redbankgreen questions about the program, "plastic film is not accepted with current recyclables as the film is lightweight and would clog the single-stream recycling machines."

Tinton Falls-based Mazza Recycling, which will receive the film, "has a separate machine that can process plastic film packaging" for reuse in other markets, they said.

The borough's public utilities department will make the collections, with the first slated for Wednesday, November 3. Subsequent collections will be on the first Wednesday of each month.

Free receptacles will be available at borough hall, 90 Monmouth Street, on Saturday, October 16, from 9 a.m. to noon. To register in advance, go here; sign-ups will also be accepted at the event.

As of Wednesday, about 100 borough residents had registered to receive the pails, whose cost was covered by S.C. Johnson.

The program will be at no additional cost to the borough, according to the resolution of approval.

Postcard mailings alerting property owners and residents to the program in English and Spanish are scheduled for this month. Additional information is available here.

What happens as the program nears the end of its one-year run?

"The project will be evaluated using metrics such as the number of participating households, the volume picked up and other criteria," Facey-Blackwood and Triggiano said. "Loch Arbor and Bradley Beach continued with the program. Matawan is still in its pilot year."

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