YES: If you want to recycle your confidential documents, you can take them to a county or local sponsored shredding event. Always check with your local recycling coordinator for the latest news and updates on your local program. Other supporters include the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, which called the measure “a sustainable program with measurable metrics and realistic objectives. Clean bottles, metal cans, and plastic containers with a 1, 2, or 5 in the triangle at the bottom, as well as newsprint, papers, and cardboard, are the only items that can be reliably recycled, say area recyclers.

In a joint statement following the passage of the bill, Assemblymembers Annette Quijano, Mila Jasey and John McKeon, sponsors of the bill, said the bill “will allow us to be at the forefront of a recycling industry in transition by stimulating demand for recycled materials while reducing pollution, such as marine litter and microplastics. For this reason, the County and its municipalities have stepped up their educational efforts to keep these items out of the recycling stream. Under the bill, the DEP could also review and update any of the post-consumer recycled content requirements based on factors such as changing market conditions, the availability of recycled material, or the capacity of the recycling infrastructure. NO- Plastic wrappers of any type are not recyclable in the curbside mix, regardless of whether they have recycling labels.

As a result, in many cases these items leave the recycling facility as garbage and are disposed of in landfills. Over the past 10 years, Camden County, like many other places, began single-stream recycling, where residents combine all recyclables into a single bin for collection. A manufacturer may request an exemption from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection if it can demonstrate that it will not be able to meet post-consumer recycled content requirements under certain conditions. The bottom line is that the costs associated with recycling will increase, and so will the cost of disposing of all waste.

Processing equipment must open garbage bags to release the recyclable materials they contain for sorting and setting aside. It also closely monitored the New Jersey bill by drafting model legislation for the minimum content of post-consumer recycled plastic for items such as garbage bags and beverage containers.