For Immediate Release
April 22, 2021
MIDDLETOWN, NJ – In celebration of Earth Day, Middletown Township today announced that it will be making improvements to the Middletown Recycling Center beginning this summer. The Township will be expanding its capacity to better serve residents and installing an Ecological Garden at the front entrance of the Public Works Administration Building (52 Kanes Lane) that will engage the community and highlight the importance of recycling and sustainability.
The Recycling Center, which is rated as one of the highest in the state according to Google, has become increasingly popular over the years, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last year, the number of items being recycled has risen significantly as online deliveries for everyday products has become a way of life.
“The impacts of COVID-19 brought to light the need to make these upgrades,” said Public Works Director Ted Maloney. “We are thrilled to see people disposing of items such as cardboard, plastics, and Styrofoam in the proper way and we want to continue to encourage this by increasing the capacity of what the Recycling Center can handle.”
The improvements to the Middletown Recycling Center will include:
- Increasing access and efficiency to the recycling drop-off bins
- Improving traffic circulation
- Allowing room for the expansion of recyclable commodities in the future
- Ensuring ADA compliance to both the Middletown Recycling Center and Administrative Building
- Establishing an Ecological Garden
The upgrades will be funded through a combination of municipal tonnage grants, ADA funding, and revenue from the resale of recyclables. One of the major benefits of these upgrades is that the Township will be able to expand the tonnages and quality of the recycling stream, which will result in greater access to grant monies and a higher revenue for recyclable products.
“Every step we take to increase our recycling efforts has tangible environmental, economic, and operational benefits for our township,” said Mayor Tony Perry. “These improvements will not only help us better accommodate our residents, but also create a cleaner recycling stream that will decrease the Township’s tipping fees at our county landfill, reduce waste, and decrease gas emissions.”
While construction is taking place, the Township will accommodate residents as much as possible through a temporary recycling center adjacent to the current Recycling Center and the satellite recycling center (located at the Middletown Train Station). Residents can download the Recycle Coach app for updates on construction.
Once established, the Ecological Garden will be included in educational tours of the Recycling Center that the Township currently provides to children of all ages. Tour groups will have the opportunity to walk through the “Garbage Garden” and see creative ways to repurpose items that were disposed of at the Recycling Center. Visitors will also see an example of a rain garden that uses “catchment systems” to water native New Jersey plants. They will also have the opportunity to plant their own seeds using the leaf compost that was collected during the Township’s curbside leaf pickup.
“Becoming more sustainable has been a major goal of the Township for the past several years, and this Ecological Garden really puts this goal into practice,” said Maloney. “We want to inspire future generations to think about recycling and sustainability as a lifestyle.”
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