Mayor’s Message: Bernie Platt
In recent years, my administration has led an aggressive push to recycle more, and, in the process, propelled Cherry Hill into the forefront of sustainability efforts across New Jersey.
In fact, two weeks ago, Cherry Hill was the backdrop for a special announcement by U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, a champion of green efforts and a longtime friend of Cherry Hill, as he announced new legislation to roll out a federal program to incentivize municipal sustainability programs.
As the senator noted during his announcement, Cherry Hill has served as a special model for its ambitious push to implement more sustainable policies and procedures.
Time and again, those efforts have proven that doing the right thing ultimately pays off for municipalities — and for our taxpayers.
Earlier this month, I received news that Cherry Hill had once again been chosen to receive a hefty grant by the State Department of Environmental Protection in recognition of the amount of recycling tonnage collected in a single year.
The grant, totaling $146,679, was determined based on the amount of materials collected in the township in 2009.
It is the 10th largest allotment of its kind in the state, and the highest amount awarded in Camden County. It is roughly $41,000 higher than the award given to Cherry Hill last year.
The funding for these grants comes from New Jersey’s Recycling Enhancement Act, which was signed into law several years ago to help the state reach its recycling-rate targets.
The program has significantly increased the amount of award money available for local governments through a $3-per-ton surcharge on trash taken to solid-waste disposal facilities.
Recycling is mandatory here in New Jersey, and the DEP’s prescribed goal for its 566 municipalities is a rate of 50 percent.
Cherry Hill boasts an impressive rate of nearly 65 percent — compared with the average municipal rate of just about 35 percent.
That number has garnered numerous awards and accolades for our community, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in state and county incentives in recent years.
It’s a number that makes me proud to be both mayor and a resident of this community.
I firmly believe that we have two factors to thank for this success: the rollout of the Recyclebank program three years ago and, more importantly, our residents.
Since the program’s inception, we’ve seen our recycling rates nearly double, and our benefits as a community have in turn grown.
Our households have embraced incentivized recycling, using Recyclebank’s reward points to save themselves money, and in the process, become more closely engaged in our municipal waste-reduction initiatives.
What’s more, though, is that this increase in curbside recycling has directly affected the cost of municipal trash-hauling and processing — again resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in savings for our taxpayers. Simply put, the less waste we’re sending to the incinerator — at a rate of about $65 per ton — the less money we’re paying in tipping fees, and the less pollution we’re dispersing into the air.
As we move toward the future, I look forward to sharing other ways that we as a local government can help promote recycling. For example, last Monday, the Cherry Hill library launched a partnership with Recyclebank that will give patrons bonus rewards points every time they borrow a book from the library.
Read more about that effort on our website at www.CherryHill-NJ.com.
In the meantime, please feel free to share your thoughts on all our environmental efforts by calling my office at 488–7878, or e-mailing [email protected].
