Case Study: Municipal Tonnage Grant (MTG)

NJ Municipalities

Opportunity/Challenges
The purpose of the Municipal Tonnage Grant is to support a municipal recycling program and lead to increased recycling rates. Limitations are dependent upon the amount of materials recycled and reported in the municipality and the amount of Recycling Enhancement Act (REA) taxes paid by the municipality the previous calendar year. Many municipalities underreport their yearly recycling totals.

Partners
DEP’s Air Quality, Energy & Sustainability Program, the Division of Sustainable Waste Management, and New Jersey Municipalities.

Action
Township Recycling Coordinators collect information on the weight in tons of recycled materials from all commercial and institutional establishments in a municipality. The year-long documentation process begins in mid-January with outreach efforts to local establishments, followed by reporting to the DEP in late-April. Municipalities need find as much data as they can on their recycling efforts for application submittal to get the largest grant award possible. Tips to maximize the grant amount include; contacting as many local businesses as possible and starting to collect recycling data as early as possible, usually in January to collect the prior year’s recycling data. Contact the larger stores who do their own recycling to get information on how much they recycled the prior year. Check recycling records from municipal haulers or recycling centers to get the correct recycling amounts for your municipality. Thirty different products are recycled in New Jersey. Make sure the recycling centers are reporting in tons not gallons for things such as used motor oil and anti-freeze. If not convert to tons from gallons. Another example is leaves. Convert cubic yards to tons to get proper credit.

Funding/Resources
The “Clean Communities and Recycling Act” of 1981 created the Municipal Tonnage Grant Program, whereby municipalities could receive a grant for material documented as being recycled during the previous calendar year. In 1987, the “New Jersey Statewide Mandatory Source Separation and Recycling Act” (the Act), specifically N.J.S.A. 13:1E-99.16, mandated the governing body of each municipality to submit an annual Recycling Tonnage Report identifying the amount of material recycled during the previous calendar year. In January 2008, the Act reestablished funding for local recycling programs through a tax of $3.00 per ton on all solid waste accepted for disposal or transfer at solid waste facilities in New Jersey except those designed exclusively to transport waste by railroad (N.J.S.A. 13:1E-96.5). The DEP then allocates that money back to municipalities based on how much recycling each community reports accomplishing during a particular calendar year. The REA requires that a Certified Recycling Coordinator (CRC- sometimes referred to as a Certified Recycling Professional – CRP) certify recycling tonnage reports, specify that grants received may only be expended on recycling (N.J.S.A. 13:1E-96(b) and that the amount of grant monies received by the municipality shall not be less than the annual amount of recycling tax paid by the municipality (N.J.S.A. 13:1E-96(b).

Results and Benefits
Maximizing a grant award by collecting all the recycling data possible by a given municipality could lead to increased grant amounts for the municipality and a higher percentage of recycling in the future.