We as a culture produce a lot of trash—and not just in the form of reality television shows, late night infomercials,  and bad romance novels. Whether it’s the candy wrappers we toss into the trash bins outside on the sidewalk, the  newspapers we take downstairs to the recycle bin, or half-eaten food we throw  down the convector chute, we dispose of tons of trash annually. But where does  it go from there? Put another way: how do the Garden State’s 8.8 million people take out the trash?  

 Every day, Central and Northern New Jersey residents produce hundreds of tons of  trash—and once all that garbage is carted away from their driveways and stoops, most  people don’t give it much further thought. The garbage has to go somewhere, however—and most often it gets shipped to landfills, transfer stations and treatment  plants throughout the state, or onto barges where it’s shipped further afield.  

 While most everyone is happy to get their garbage off their hands, they tend to  be less enthused about having those aforementioned landfills, transfer stations  and treatment facilities anywhere near their homes or communities. And once you  educate yourself about where your garbage is going, you’ll learn a lot more about the politics, money and greed surrounding New Jersey  trash and its related issues.  

 Processing, Processing

 New Jersey has 21 counties, and each county can decide how they want to dispose  of their trash. Some choose to do waste flow control, and others don’t, says Larry Gindoff, solid waste coordinator for Morris County.  

 Waste flow control essentially means that the garbage is designed for a specific  landfill or incinerator (most are actually within the county or in an adjoining  county) rather than being shipped to various locations based on price at that  moment.  

 The benefits to a waste control system is that Morris County—along with the other counties that follow this—limit their municipalities’ liability exposure. Since they know exactly where their garbage is going each  time it leaves their county, they don’t have as much liability or risk. Also, they have long-term financial security  because they can lock into a rate that stays the same.  

 Finally, since they’re loyal to a specific landfill or incinerator, they gain a mutual trust,  Gindoff says.  

 The payoff is often the cost though. Since those who don’t follow waste control can simply choose a dumping ground that has a good rate,  they often times pay less than those counties that follow waste flow control.  

 Transfer Stations and Solid Waste

 In New Jersey, five counties have their own solid waste incinerators, five have  landfills and the remaining have a transfer system, Gindoff says.  

 To get to the incinerators or landfills, most of the counties need a transfer  station to transfer the garbage from small trucks to more efficient ones. “Your typical garbage truck isn’t built to drive over highways with any efficiency,” Gindoff says. “So you transfer the garbage into transfer trailers to efficiently haul the  garbage over the highways.”  

 Some of the transfer stations even have rail stations built into them so they  load the garbage onto trains instead of trailers.  

 This all depends on how far away the landfill or incinerator is, he explains.  Trains can go about 200 miles before they become inefficient.  

 In Morris County, the garbage landfill is about 60 miles away in Pennsylvania.  

 Once the trash gets to the landfills, the garbage haulers dump the trash on the  base of the landfill before it is bulldozed into place and covered to prevent  birds from picking at it.  

 If the destination is an incinerator, the trash gets burnt while the emissions  are released through the smokestack. Typically, this results in a small amount  of solid material—ash—that gets moved into the landfill.  

 What Do We Do Now?

 “Most of the transfer stations and incinerators are 20 to 25 years old, and most  the landfills are between 30 and 40 years old,” Gindoff says.  

 There are no plans to make new ones, and there is no need to make additional  landfills. But many of the landfills are looking to expand their spaces by  making them more efficient or by burying garbage in the mounds between the  existing garbage. Some are trying to mine the landfill—which means to compact the waste to give themselves more room to bury more  landfill.  

 Part of the problem is that creating a new landfill is a very complicated  matter.  

 The engineers need to design the facility for their clients, but the site also  has to be in compliance with the permits and regulatory compliance put forth by  the Department of Environmental Protection, Gindoff says.  

 The other problem is determining where a potential landfill or incinerator or  recycling center should be.  

 After all, no one wants it in their backyard. Well, no one used to want it in  their own backyard.  

 “Originally, most municipalities were against garbage facilities going to them,” Gindoff says. “But now with these tough economic times, they’re not as against the facilities going into their towns.”  

 According to New Jersey law, municipalities must receive at least 50 cents per  ton of garbage dropped off. But, many municipalities bargain for much more than  that. In Morris County, for example, host municipalities receive around $5 per  ton. “It adds up to quite a bit of money for simply hosting the sites,” Gindoff says.  

 Recycle It

 The bigger problem, however, comes down to recycling. The recycling centers aren’t required to pay the municipalities to host them, so while everyone agrees that  recycling is good for the environment, no one wants the recycling center in  their backyard if they’re not getting anything in return.  

 New Jersey, however, still has a goal of 50 percent recycling, and they continue  to brainstorm to make this a realistic goal. So far, it appears to be working.  

 The state just celebrated its 25th anniversary of the Mandatory Recycling Act.  In 2010, they reached a 40 percent recycling rate for municipal solid waste,  which was an increase from 37 percent the previous year, according to the New  Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).  

 That jump was due to an extra 364,000 tons of paper, glass, cardboard, plastic  and other items recycling in 2010 instead of being tossed into landfills or  incinerators. What that means in terms of money is a savings of $26 million  from avoided solid waste disposal costs, plus an additional $45.5 million in  the revenue from the sales of recycled materials throughout the state.  

 More recently, there has been a push to remind New Jersey residents that they  should also be recycling their electronics—TVs, computers, phones and other gadgets. This year, there were 40 million  pounds of recycled electronic waste. That’s a five-fold increase since 2010, when just 8 million pounds were recycled.  

 “The Department of Environmental Protection is seeking to improve understanding  of the electronic waste recycling law and improve compliance in 2012 through  education, including a planned major electronic waste outreach and education  campaign,” says Department of Environmental Protection Assistant Commissioner of  Environmental Management Jane Kozinski. “So whether you received a new television, iPad or desktop computer or gave one  as a gift, be sure to tell your family and friends of this new system to handle  your electronic waste.”  

 So while recycling seems to be on par for expectations, New Jersey does have a  waste problem on its hands—and it all has to do with money.  

 When the counties build the facilities in the 1980s, they were anticipating a  specific flow of garbage over time that would eventually pay for the  facilities. They started borrowing from their own debt, and they now have the  same quantity—if not more debt—than they had 20 years ago,” Gindoff says.  

 The state began handing out grants to the facilities and counties to prevent the  default of the bonds to pay for them.  

 “But now, with state budgets in the shape they’re in, they can’t afford to pay grants to irresponsible counties. That’s a major conflict going on with counties that are used to getting the money.”  

 A Trashy Future

 “Truck traffic, potential litter associated with the trucks, additional wear and  tear on local roads, increased air pollution, leakage from the facilities,  potential storm water aggregation from rain that lands on the trucks and ends  up in the storm water system are all problems that the garbage brings to its  municipalities,” Gindoff says.  

 Regardless of what problems garbage disposal causes nowadays, newer, better  methods are on the horizon. The facilities are doing their best to try to get  with the times and transform the garbage into useful resources, such as turning  waste to energy.  

 “Also, the landfills are starting to look at themselves as a processing facility  and they’re actively trying to keep the garbage alive and keep it decomposing to generate  methane which could be used to generate electricity,” says Gindoff. “This maximizes the use of the resources. We see the potential of trying to turn  the garbage into fuel before it goes into the landfill or incinerator.”    

 Danielle Braff is a freelance writer and a frequent contributor to The New  Jersey Cooperator.