Four smaller municipalities surrounding Ocean Township will soon be given the opportunity to use the township’s new recycling center at the western end of Sunset Avenue.
The newly-opened Ocean Township Recycling Center, near the public works yard, was paid for through a $150,000 Monmouth County Municipal Recycling Services Improvement Grant.
Township Administrator Andrew Brannen said one of the stipulations of the grant is that the township would attempt to facilitate shared services with neighboring communities, in this case Loch Arbour, Interlaken, Allenhurst and Deal.
Brannen said that he has already met with officials from all four towns and that another meeting is scheduled for next week to look at agreements to use the drop-off facility.
“The participating towns will be asked to share costs for operating the facility and one of the purposes of the meeting is to determine how these costs will be shared, whether it is be based on population, the amount of material dropped off, or another formula,” he said.
Brannen said the new facility has only been open since last fall but that a three-month operating budget will be put together to project an annual budget.
All residents are asked to provide identification when dropping off recyclable materials.
The new recycling center accepts glass, paper, plastic, cardboard, concrete, yard-waste, electronic waste (such as computer and television), tires, and appliances.
Such items used to be dropped off at the larger public works yard, just to the west, but that was deemed a safety hazard for the public.
“It was kind of a safety hazard because the public had to access an area that stored and repaired heavy equipment and we wanted to get the public away from these types of activities,” Brannen said.
