FAQ

Helpful hints when disposing of recycables, solid waste, and trash.

Q: What are acceptable commingled recyclable materials?
A: Glass, cans, all plastic items, and wax coated containers such as milk and juice containers. Also Styrofoam, shrink wrap, bulky rigid plastic and larger plastic items. Plastic and glass items can be rinsed, but do not have to be perfectly clean.

Q: What can be mixed with paper for recycling?
A: Junk mail, cardboard, newspapers, paper bags and any type of wrapping paper. Cartons that are purely paper/cardboard (do not feel “waxy”). Please flatten.

Q: Where do Milk/Juice Cartons go?
Most of these ‘Tetra Pak’ style cartons are composed of several layers of paper, foil, and plastic. These should be recycled in commingled, along with the cap.

Q: How can I dispose of household trash (other than items to be recycled)?
A: For the East Zone of town Thursday’s and for the West Zone of town on Friday’s: Regular household kitchen/bathroom garbage. Up to five items can be placed curbside. Bulk items should not exceed 5 feet in length (rugs, scrap wood, etc. will have to be cut and bundled).

Q: How do I dispose of metal items, such as refrigerators, stoves, washer/dryers, railing and other heavy metal items?
A: Call the DPW garbage hotline at 201-666-4800 extension 1578, for a pick-up appointment on Wednesday’s only. Please call by 2:00pm on Tuesday.

Q: What can I bring to the recycling center?
A: Paper, cardboard, de-mounted tires, waste oil, batteries, anti-freeze, commingled glass, plastic, aluminum, heavy metals and organic material, i.e., grass/brush. No Hazardous Material i.e., NO paint, propane tanks.

Q: What are the hours of the recycling center?
A: Monday to Friday from 7:00am to 3:00pm and Saturday from 8:00am to 2:00pm.

Q: Can I bring construction debris to be recycled?
A: No, solid waste/debris cannot be accepted at the recycling center.

Q: What can I do with construction debris?
A: Construction debris is the responsibility of the contractor and homeowner and not to be disposed of with our sanitation company, when a contractor is employed.

Q: Are landscapers allowed to dump at the recycling center?
A: No, only residents with current Borough Stickers attached to their vehicles. Stickers are available at the Hillsdale Police Department.

Q: How can I place vegetative/brush waste at the curb?
A: Brush/tree limbs must be cut into 4 foot lengths and tied in bundles no more than 75 pounds. Grass clippings, etc. can be placed in garbage cans at the curbside for pickup. Plastic bags cannot be used to dispose of organic material. For the East Zone of town vegetative waste pickup day is Friday and the West Zone is Thursday. See calendar for start date.

Q: Why don’t we have single stream collection (all recyclables in one collection)?
A: Single stream collection decreases material yield. Dual-stream collection shows greater recycling success with source-separated MRFs lost only 1.6% of materials to residuals or outthrows. So even though the single-stream systems showed a 20.8% increase in tonnage collected, they also showed a net decrease of 12.2% in overall tons recycled.

Q: What can I do with batteries, printer cartridges, light bulbs, etc.?
A: Information coming soon.

Recycling practices

The Borough of Hillsdale reminds residents it is the law to recycle. Please separate your recycling from your solid waste, place it in a dedicated recycling can and move it to the street on your dedicated recycling day.

Hillsdale will continue to work with our residents and Waste Management to improve borough recycling practices. To that end, the borough is implementing a recycling pilot program on July 1, 2011. A friendly reminder (OOPS) sticker will be placed on recyclable items that are incorrectly put out at the curb on a regular garbage collection day and these items will be left at the curb. The town is not looking to penalize residents, but to follow state law, to lessen the amount of garbage that is carried through our neighborhoods, and to keep Hillsdale cleaner.

Recycling not only has environmental benefits, but also pays direct financial dividends to Hillsdale. The cost of disposing of garbage is far greater than that of removal of recyclables. In short, recycling saves Hillsdale taxpayers a total of $171,310.80 per year. Hillsdale received $50,613.60 in revenue from recycling and removed 1547.40 tons of recyclables out of the waste stream in 2010. If Hillsdale had to pay to dispose of the recyclables as waste, the cost would have been $120,697.20.

If you have any questions or want to employ even better recycling practices, please call and leave a message with the DPW at 201-358-5053 or go to hillsdalenj.org.