January 21, 2025| Community, Environment
By: Andrew Dollberg
In November, we launched a special recycling program to collect candy and snack wrappers, aiming to spread awareness about recycling during Halloween—a time when candy consumption peaks. We’re thrilled to announce that, so far, our drive successfully collected an impressive 1,379 wrappers! These wrappers will be repurposed into new products, giving them a second life and reducing waste in our environment.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this effort by collecting wrappers and dropping them off at our office. It was wonderful to meet so many people excited to participate. A special shoutout to Bill Woolley, who “went the extra mile” by gathering wrappers he found during his daily walks, reducing litter and recycling at the same time! We also want to recognize Heather Varner and the students at Jefferson Township High School’s Academy for Environmental Science, who collected wrappers en masse and made a big impact!
We’re also deeply grateful to the volunteers who sorted and counted every wrapper, who also ensured that only acceptable materials were included in the collection. Their efforts behind the scenes were essential to the program’s success and we truly appreciate their commitment!
This recycling effort was made possible through a program offered by TerraCycle, where we purchased a box specifically for collecting wrappers. After collection, we return the full box, and the wrappers are shredded, sorted by material type, and processed into pellets, flakes, or powder. These raw materials are then sold to manufacturers and transformed into a wide range of products, including storage containers, flooring, playground equipment, athletic fields, and more.
TerraCycle offers a variety of recycling programs that give a second life to hard-to-recycle items, including disposable gloves, cigarette waste, drink pouches, disposable masks, single-use coffee pods, and many more.
We’re also excited to share that our TerraCycle box still has room for more wrappers! In response to this, we will be extending our collection. Please drop off your clean wrappers (any flexible plastic-based candy and snack wrappers) in our collection bin, located by our office door on the left side of the Lake Hopatcong Station, 125 Landing Road, Landing, any time before April 30.
Together, we’re reducing plastic waste and protecting our watershed!
