Why a Consolidation Center

In March and April 1990, the MCMUA Solid Waste Committee and Morris County Solid Waste Advisory Council held several meetings which identified Morris County's long-term recycling goals and developed recommendations to achieve these goals. Consensus was reached at these meetings that the County should continue to strongly adhere to its primary reliance on source separation recycling, in all sectors. The MCMUA and Board of Chosen Freeholders have concurred with this policy. There was also consensus that, for some recyclable materials, there was weak demand in the markets and that the supply of materials will increase at a greater rate than the demand for these materials resulting in a market based disincentive to recycle.

Realizing that recycling rates may be negatively impacted in the future due to increased materials glutting the market as New Jersey and the Northeast United States dramatically increased their recycling efforts, Morris County decided to provide a guaranteed market for its generators through the development of a Recycling Consolidation Center (Center). The Center would accept source separated materials from residential, commercial and institutional generators then clean, glean and consolidate the materials in order to supply the highest quality product to an increasingly sensitive recycling market. The economies of scale achieved by the Center place Morris County generators in a much stronger marketing position than would be achieved if each generator individually marketed its own materials.

The implementation of the Consolidation Center was initially designed to process "hard to market" materials such as plastics, corrugated, junk mail, magazines as well as a variety of office paper.   Over time, the Center has changed with the recycling market and the County's needs.  It now focuses primarily of fiber (paper) recyclables but also provides the County with other opportunities to improve its recycling program.  With this in mind, the Consolidation Center has become home to the Curbside Recycling Program as well as a consolidation point for the MCMUA's universal waste recycling program handling fluorescent light bulbs and batteries.