1996-12-15 – A Year in Review – NJ HHW County Programs 1996

On December 5,1996 the ANJHHWC conducted its final meeting of year. The highlight of the meeting was the discussion of the year in HHW as each County told tales of their experiences and programs. These discussions are summarized below.

1. Atlantic – Conducted 3 HHW days. In addition, the 1st Saturday of each month is paint, battery, oil and antifreeze recycling at the recycling facility.
2. Bergen – Conducted 3 HHW disposal days. Republic Environmental conducted the program and it was bid on a price per pound for different categories of waste. This lead to problems tracking the large quantities of waste collected at each event. There were a total 6,700 participants at the 3 days, 440,000 pounds of waste were collected and it averaged $34.00 per car. At the last event the contractor was way understaffed which lead to waits up to one hour. In 1997 the County will try recycling latex paint with Murrel Paint located in Bayonne, N.J.
3. Burlington – Only County to operate a full scale permanent HHW facility in N.J. They managed 400,000 pounds of HHW from 2,000 – 2,500 participants for lower costs than the previous year. They are managing oil-based paints as a universal waste through municipal drop-off sites. The municipalities collect the easier & safer to manage HHW and deliver it to the County facility. The County signs a bill of lading when they receive this waste. The County recycles its own latex paint (low-tech) and sells it for $1.00 per gallon. It goes quickly at this rate. The County recycled 46,000 feet of fluorescent bulbs primarily from schools.
4. Camden -  Conducted 4 HHW disposal days plus 6 additional paint only days. Wade Environmental was the contractor and the contract was based on a price per pound. The cost were $0.47/pound for HHW and $0.32/pound for paint. For the HHW days they average 800 – 1,000 cars and had 2,200 participants for the paint days. If HHW showed up at the paint days Wade handled it. They have batteries collection sites at schools. The first paint day only had 14 people show up because it was scheduled for the Saturday of Memorial Day. They started a thermostat collection program through HVAC dealers that is not flourishing. Suggested that the promotion was not adequate.
5. Cape May - No information posted.
6. Cumberland - Conducted 3 HHW disposal days. They got some of their sewerage authorities to chip in to pay for one of the events. Wade Environmental was the contractor and they had no problems. The contract was on price per pound and it was for $0.51/pound. They have a school hazardous waste inventory program where they work with schools to help them manage the hazardous wastes internally and then schedule deliveries to the HHW days. They brings oil and antifreeze tanks on-site for bulk containerization. For promotion, they suggest that 8½” x 11″ inserts in newspapers are cost effective but you need to reserve this space early. People show up to the disposal days with these inserts in their hands.
7. Essex - No information posted.
8. Gloucester - Conducted 2 HHW disposal days plus 3 paint only recycling days. Wade Environmental was the contractor and did a good job. The contractor was based on a price per pound with costs of $0.49/pound for HHW and $0.37 for paint. The costs for 1996 were down 12% from 1995. They accept up to 200 pounds of hazardous waste from schools and municipalities. Anything over that has to be paid for by the generator.
9. Hudson - No information posted.
10. Hunterdon  - Conducted 4 HHW disposal days. They had two contractors during the year, due to bid sequencing and they were Clean Venture and Republic. They averaged 300 cars per event and an average cost per car of $35 – $50. They collect batteries at drop-off sites in schools then inmates sort them by type. They call in C.R. Warner to do oil, antifreeze and diesel fuel collection and recycling during their HHW days. PCB’s in drums of paint and paying for this became an issue in one of their contracts.
11. Mercer - No information posted.
12. Middlesex - Conducted 7 HHW disposal days and averaged between 500 and 700 people per disposal day. Radiac Research was the contractor and contract was based on a per car basis. The programs ended up costing approximately $34.00 per car. A participant arrived with crystallized ether late during one of the days causing a closing 15 minutes early. It was safely disposed of by the County’s bomb squad.
13. Monmouth - Conducted 5 HHW disposal days with both Radiac Research and Wade Environmental as contractors. They have 7 health department employees help on the disposal days. Their permanent facility had its ribbon cutting ceremony in the fall but it is not open yet. Making all of the electrical components in the permanent facility’s building inherently explosion proof has caused several delays.
14. Morris - Conducted 4 HHW disposal days and had 2,200 participants. The contract was based on a per car plus a setup cost per day. The contract was bid at $0.00 per car and $17,900 per participant. There were no other costs. Collected approximately 250,000 pound of HHW throughout the year. In addition, the County accepted approximately 50 drums of batteries managed by Focus Recycling. It has just started a fluorescent bulb recycling program that has not caught on yet where the County will accept bulbs for $0.15/foot including packaging. It has received its permanent HHW facility permit approval from NJDEP and will be going out for construction bids in January 1997.
15. Ocean - Conducted 26 HHW disposal days throughout the year and handled 9,900 cars collecting 925,000 pounds of HHW. The contractor was Clean Venture/Cycle-Chem and it was based on a price per pound all inclusive including PCBs. The participants must pre-register and reserve space to go to an event. Feels demand in Ocean has peaked and for the first time they had to try hard to promote the program in order to fill the available appointments. In addition, they take in oil, antifreeze, batteries and empty paint cans at their county recycling center. Managed 40,000 pounds of batteries through Wade Environmental and also recycle 975 gallons of oil/month at the recycling center.
16. Passaic - Conducted 1 HHW disposal day and had Rem-Tech Environmental as the contractor who did a good job. It was on October 19th which was a day of torrential downpours experienced by several counties but they program went well. The price was bid per pound and the cost per car turned out to be $35.00 per car.
17. Salem - No information posted.
18. Somerset - Conducted 4 HHW disposal days. Clean Venture was the contractor and the contract was on a per car basis. They had 2,000 participants for the year and the events cost approximately $20,000 per event. They collect batteries curbside throughout the County and deliver approximately 20 drums of batteries per event for recycling.
19. Sussex - Conducted 2 HHW disposal days. They serviced more cars this year for less money. Their contract was based on a price/net pound.
20. Union - Conducted 6 HHW disposal days. Cycle-Chem was the contractor and the price was based on price per pound plus setup per day. The cost was $0.23/pound plus $17,000 setup cost per HHW day. The average cost was $34.00 per car. They averaged between 500 – 800 participants per day. They had a problem of a small leak in a roll-off that was caught on film by a resident and it caused the cancellation of an entire program. They recycled 25 tons of batteries that they collected from drop-off sites for $0.23 per pound. There was a contest between schools to see which one could recycle the most batteries.
21. Warren - Conducted 2 HHW days where there were 3 simultaneous collection sites throughout the county. EcoFlow, out of North Carolina, was the contractor and did a good job. Managed 80 drums of batteries during the HHW disposal days.