Minutes
Township of Bloomfield Recycling Committee
October 13, 2010
Submitted by Jane Califf, Secretary
Attendance: Claire Anderson, Nicholas Joanow, Trish Comstock, Gerald (Jerry)
MacIntyre, Jane Califf
A. Minutes of Sept. 8th accepted.
B. Municipal Recycling Containers: We will send a press release for the next issue of
the Bloomfield Buzz and to local papers about the availability of municipal recycling
containers for ads by local businesses. The greater the number of ads, the greater the
profits that Creative Outdoor Advertising makes. Then our Committee will begin to get a
small percentage of these profits, which we can use for our outreach efforts.
C. Electronic Recycling: On Sept. 25th, a DPW truck collected 2 cubic yards of
electronics from Bloomfield residents at Brookdale Shoprite as part of our seasonal
collection of electronics in the north end of town.
From 2007, when our electronic recycling began, until October 2010, we have
recycled 1,462 computers. This is an important achievement in helping to keep toxic
heavy metals from ending up in the Newark Covanta Incinerator and polluting our air.
In addition, this saves the Bloomfield taxpayer money since it now costs $85 for each ton
of trash that is burned at the incinerator.
D. Harvest Fest: Our table at the Sept. 25th Harvest Fest was a success. We had good
cooperation with the Bloomfield Recreation Dept. which supplied us with tables and
chairs; Jerry had an excellent sign made that was put on the sidewalk to point passers-by
in our direction; the location was good – in front of the library close to the street; people
appreciated the important information we distributed and the cloth bags from Green Sky
Industries.
Here is an important sign that Jane made based on statistics supplied by Jerry:
Did you Know?
- Bloomfield PAYS $82.11/ ton to incinerate trash in Newark.
- Bloomfield EARNS up to $40/ton from recycling. ++
THEREFORE:
- Recycle more! Don't "burn" our tax dollars!
++ In 2008, Bloomfield SAVED over $811,000 tax
dollars by recycling and helped SAVE the
environment at the same time.
We noticed that people know a lot more about recycling than in the past, which is a
credit to our efforts to educate residents on the importance of recycling. People who
asked questions that we could not answer wrote them down. Jerry will see that they get
called with an answer.
We were lucky to have master gardener Florence Rollino of Bloomfield create and
staff a table explaining backyard composting which combines leaves, grass and food
scraps that over time create a natural fertilizer for lawns and gardens. Composting also
keeps food waste from going to Covanta Incinerator in Newark, another way to save our
tax dollars.
E. Recycling Brochure: We discussed a few more changes to be made. Claire will put
in these revisions, so we will now have an updated version.
The next meeting of the Bloomfield Recycling Committee will be on Wed., Nov. 10th,
7 p.m., in the Mayor’s Conference Room on the second floor of the Law
Enforcement Building on Montgomery St.