A Burlington County recycling program was approved by the Shamong Township Committee during its latest meeting.
The program will give residents new recycling bins at the cost of an annual increase of $5 per household for six years.
The new bins will have wheels, replacing the current yellow buckets residents have. The board was concerned the new bins will break and cause residents to pay more in the future.
“So these will replace the yellow buckets that we’ve been using. I’ve had mine for 25 years and not a problem with it, so now we’re going to have carts with wheels and a lid on it and we’ll have broken wheels and broken lids,” said Mayor Michael DiCroce.
However, the board felt it needed to approve the measure, stating the county will not pick up recycling if the town does not adopt the new bins.
The plan by the county is to eventually use trucks that will pick up the bins using a mechanical arm. The bins that the county is offering are specifically shaped for the new trucks.
In other news:
- On April 24, DiCroce and township manager Susan Onorato met with the United States Environmental Protection Agency at the Ewan property in Shamong. The EPA recently certified the area as “clean,” and will continue to work on restoring the area to “forest use.”
The site is located just off of Tuckerton Road. In the mid-70s, the site was found to be highly polluted. Waste disposal activities took place at the 43-acre site in 1974 and 1975, resulting in soil and groundwater contamination with volatile organic compounds including acetone, toluene, xylene and trichloroethylene; semi-volatile compounds and some heavy metals, including arsenic, chromium and aluminum, according to the EPA website.
The site is being monitored through an extensive groundwater monitoring program, which consists of the tri-annual sampling of 19 groundwater monitoring wells; an annual sampling of 52 monitoring wells, and a two-and-a-half year sampling of 61 wells. Every five years, a select number of downgradient off-site residential wells are sampled, according to the website.
DiCroce and Onorato made an inquiry of what the future property could be used for. They stated that it might be something the township could acquire after it is fully restored. - Council members stated they have not yet received back the state’s review for a budget, which according to the town, is necessary to approve the 2019 budget.
- The council approved a $250,000 DOT grant given to the township to improve stormwater draining on Grassy Lake Road.
