Minutes
Township of Bloomfield Recycling Committee
August 11, 2010
Submitted by Jane Califf
Attendance: Claire Anderson, Gerald (Jerry) MacIntyre, Mark Stulbaum, Nicholas
(Nick) Joanow, Jane Califf
Guest: Nick Gorfinkle, Bloomfield resident, webmaster
A. Need for new committee member: Last October Kelly Burja submitted her
resignation as a member of the Recycling Committee due to work obligations. Since then,
we have been short one member. At the last Town Council meeting, the mayor proposed
no new appointments until the new Council members take their seats next January. This
proposal passed.
B. Recycling Website: Nick Gorfinkle will look over our website to see how to make it
more visual and interesting. We are grateful for his offer to do this.
C. Municipal Recycling Containers: Fifteen containers are placed around town. Three
out of the four bins that have advertising are from Bloomfield businesses. Jerry has
referred Bloomfield businesses to the 800 number of Creative Outdoor Advertising to
encourage more of them to buy ads. Meanwhile, we will advertise the Grove St.
Recycling Drop Off Center on bins that are not rented.
D. Recycling Code Enforcers: Money was placed in the Town budget for two part time
code enforcers. When the budget is passed, they will be hired.
E. Channel 35: Nick will reach out to the station manager, Bob Duthaler, to begin
planning recycling education spots.
F. Green Sky Industries is the Clifton company that accepts Bloomfield recyclables.
Nick and Mark paid them a visit recently. They were impressed with the highly
organized operation. They found out that they had collected 2,000 tons of residential
recyclables – mixed paper and co-mingled – through July.
The most important thing they learned was that our town’s residential electronics which
Green Sky has been collecting is no longer given to RegenTech, another Clifton
company, which had sent them to Asia where there are few safety regulations for
recycling workers. Now our electronics are being sent to Advanced Recovery, an
American company, which has protections for worker safety. The electronics are taken
to their facility in Newark. There they refurbish what can be repaired which they then
sell. The rest is sent up to their Port Jervis, N.Y. plant, where computers and other
electronics are dismantled, with the plastics, metals and other components sold to
companies that can use them.
H. Expanded Electronic Recycling Collection in the north end of Bloomfield: In a
town press release, Jerry announced that there will be electronic recycling on Saturdays,
Sept. 25th, Jan. 8th and May 21st from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. in the parking lot across from
Brookdale Christian Church and adjacent to Brookdale Shoprite. We are grateful for the
cooperation of these two organizations in making this possible.
The Department of Public Works will collect the electronics and take them to the Grove
St. Drop Off Center where citizens can always bring their recyclables every Sat. from 9
a.m. – 1 p.m.
Jerry stated, “The program not only saves tax dollars by diverting electronic equipment
that would typically be sent to the incinerator in Newark; it also cuts down on toxic
emissions which are a major cause of respiratory illnesses.”
G. Harvest Fest will take place on Sept. 25th and 26th. We will have a table on the 25th.
The next meeting of the Bloomfield Recycling Committee will be on Wed.,
September 8th, at 7 p.m. in the Mayor’s Conference Room on the second floor of the
Law Enforcement Building on Montgomery St.