Burlington County Freeholders have long offered curbside recycling as one of the most visible, if not largest, shared-services initiatives with towns — and freeholders are now considering a revenue plan to keep the popular service in place for years to come.
Recycling is supported, in part, with revenue from solid-waste tipping fees, but in recent years, the county has experienced a marked decline in the amount of waste disposed at its landfill complex, according to Freeholder Joseph Donnelly.
Donnelly said the freeholder board now is weighing a “flow control” measure that would require all residential, commercial and institutional-type waste generated in the county be disposed of in Burlington County — and not be transported to facilities outside the county.
The additional waste would bring with it additional revenue.
“The good news is that this will have no material effect on the towns, since they already bring all their waste to the county complex,” Donnelly said. “If anything, it will enable us not only to continue to offer recycling services, but to expand them.”
The freeholders were expected to take action Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011 on a flow-control amendment to the Burlington County Solid Waste District Plan. The aim of the amendment is to recover solid waste generated at businesses and institutions that is currently being transported out-of-county.
A public hearing preceded formal action by the board.
“From both environmental and fiscal perspectives, this is a defining moment in the history of Burlington County’s very successful solid waste and recycling program,” Donnelly said. “We continue to expand, and are looking to the successful implementation of single stream recycling during 2012.”
For the towns, recycling is a serious tax saver. The more residents recycle, the less waste is headed to the landfill — which means tipping-fee savings. And single-stream recycling, or the commingling of all recyclables in a single cart, typically bolsters recycling rates.
Donnelly said freeholders would offer municipalities five-year contracts with the condition that tipping fees cannot be increased more than 2 percent in any given year. In 2012, the rate is expected to go from $72.45 per ton to $73.74, which includes state taxes.
As for flow control, this is not a new concept.
It was originally provided by state statute in the 1980s, when the Legislature adopted measures mandating each county become responsible for solid waste generated within its borders.
The idea was to ensure counties had a stream of revenue to fund environmentally safe waste facilities.
Private solid-waste haulers challenged flow control in the 1990s and, in 1997, courts ruled it violated the Interstate Commerce Clause of the Constitution.
County freeholders then entered into agreements with all 40 municipalities.
The end result was that towns continued to bring all waste to the county landfill complex in Florence and Mansfield, and the county continued to provide recycling at no additional cost.
Meanwhile, solid-waste haulers and businesses chose not to enter into agreements with the county, in order to play the market, and to seek cheaper disposal options, including those out-of-state.
However, the legal battle was far from over, and in 2007, the Supreme Court reversed the earlier ruling, effectively allowing counties to institute waste flow to establish financial stability, and to continue to operate environmentally-sound disposal operations.
The fiscal impact of the 1997 ruling, however, has been significant.
In 1998, just 10 percent of the 345,479 tons of waste generated in Burlington County was transported out-of-county. The percentage and tonnage transported out-of-county has increased steadily, and in 2009, 40 percent of the 454,373 tons of waste went to outside facilities.
Eleven other counties in New Jersey have implemented flow-control measures. Burlington County would be the 12th.
