Atlantic Coast Recycling wins New Jersey contract

The Atlantic Coast Recycling division of Passaic, New Jersey-based Atlantic Coast Fibers has announced it has been awarded a five-year contract to operate and maintain the Ocean County Recyclable Materials Processing Facility in Lakewood, New Jersey.

Atlantic Coast Recycling is responsible for furnishing all labor, material and equipment necessary for the operation and maintenance of the material recovery facility (MRF) and the marketing for all the recyclables processed. The contract also includes the operation of the Southern Recycling Center in Stafford Township, New Jersey.

The Ocean County plant is the largest county-owned recycling facility in New Jersey, according to Atlantic Coast, and one of the largest county-owned facilities in the United States. The facility receives and processes more than 80,000 tons per year of recyclables from every municipality in Ocean County.

“The county looks forward to working with Atlantic Coast Recycling (ACR) and seeing what improvements they will bring to the county recycling facility,” says Ernest J. Kuhlwein, director of Ocean County Solid Waste Management. “ACR was selected for several reasons we considered advantageous to the county; in addition, its proposal offered the highest financial return to the county and its municipalities.”

“Working together with the County of Ocean, we intend to maintain the status of the facility as one of the premier recycling facilities in the state,” says Chris Riviello, operations managing partner of ACR. (ACR parent company Atlantic Coast Fibers was profiled by Recycling Today in 2012.) Adds Riviello, “Our goal is to tweak the systems to produce the best quality recyclables for market and to achieve a high financial return to the municipalities in the county.”

Since taking over the facility, ACR says it has made significant changes to the operation, including almost doubling the number of workers. “One of the first changes we made was to increase the number of line sorters and incorporate QC [quality control] personnel into the mix,” says Marc Rudman, plant manager. “We strongly believe in a proactive approach to recycling, and the only way you can guarantee good quality is by having someone check the material, and that’s why we added QC people on the line.”

In addition to the Ocean County location, ACR operates two sites in Monmouth County, New Jersey, and two sites and corporate offices in Passaic County, New Jersey. With the addition of the Ocean County site, ACR processes on average of 30,000 tons per month of recyclables while employing almost 300 people.