2020 Update: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no school litter cleanups during 2020.

2019 "Keep Morris County Litter Free"
- Grant for Public Schools

The Morris Count Municipal Utilities Authority, through the Morris County Clean Communities Program, is pleased to announce the results of the 2019 Keep Morris County Liter Free Grant program for public schools. Twenty-two Morris County schools participated in this program and cleaned litter form 108 acres of land. One hundred, thirteen bags of trash, ninety-four bags of recyclables, twenty pounds of scrap metal and five tires were collected during the litter cleanups. Once thousand, two hundred, seventy-seven participants worked two thousand, seven hundred, and two hours to achieve these amazing results. Thanks to all participants!

List of participating schools:

Bragg School | Briarcliff Middle School | C.A. Dwyer School | Cedar Hills Elementary School | Copeland Middle School East Hanover Middle School | Eisenhower Middle School | Hanover Park High School |Hillview Elementary School | Jefferson Twp. Middle School | Lazar Middle School | Morris Hills Regional High School | Morris Plains Borough School | Mt. Arlington Public School | North Boulevard School | Parsippany High School | Pequannock Twp. High School | Pequannock Valley Middle School | Rockaway Valley School | Salem Drive School | Unity Charter School | Valleyview Middle School

Butler Borough High School participants in the 2023 Keep Morris County Litter Free mini grant program. Great job!

Parsippany-Troy Hills Township High School participants in the 2023 Keep Morris County Litter Free mini grant program. Great job!

Morris Hills Environmental Action Club Cleans Wooded Area in Rockaway Township

Pictured below are members of the Morris Hills Environmental Action Club during a cleanup in Rockaway Township. The adopted area is near Mount Hope Spring and was heavily littered. The group cleaned a huge amount of dumped items out of the woods, some too large to put into trash bags! Numerous Saturday cleanups were conducted at this site until the group felt the job was done.

Unfortunately, the littered area was the result of years of illegal dumping. The club members found kitchen cabinets, parts of cars including a car hood, old tires, pallets, a mattress, a sofa and lots of empty metal cans and shattered glass bottles. It took 10 cleanups to finally get all of the debris removed from this beautiful wooded area and appreciate the natural beauty that was once marred by the littered items.

Frank Cappuccio, referring to the Morris Hills Environmental Action Club members said, "I am very proud of the work these young people did!"

Mr. Frank Cappuccio is the advisor of the Morris Hills Environmental Action Club, a Science teacher, and the 2016 award recipient of "The Power of Green - Living, Leading, Teaching" award, presented by the Morris County Municipal Utilities Authority during the annual environmental excellence awards celebration on May 20, 2016.

NJDEP's “Don’t Waste our Open Space” campaign

In March 2014, The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) announced its “Don’t Waste our Open Space” campaign. The NJDEP's website, http://www.stopdumping.nj.gov cites the problem of public lands all over New Jersey being used as dumping grounds. Litter, garbage bags, tires, televisions, electronic waste, appliances, yard waste, and construction debris is dumped and threatens our local environment, animals and public. This dumping detracts from the natural beauty of our public lands; it decreases property value, and costs the citizens of New Jersey tax dollars to cleanup.

The campaign is being developed to advise the public of the State’s crackdown on illegal dumping and to recruit public help in reporting illegal dumping violations.

Help to save the environment by participating in the free Ring Leader Recycling Program. Participants in the program collect ring carriers and ship them back to Hi-Cone for recycling!

Tracking Trash Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion
 
The Morris County Clean Communities program proudly provided the book titled Tracking Trash Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion, by author Loree Griffin Burns, to all public middle schools and to all municipal libraries (those that did not already have a copy). The book provides pertinent litter abatement information for students in grades 6 though 8. Through the Morris County Clean Communities education program, we hope to change the attitudes and actions of those who litter!

Where does litter come from? There are many sources of litter:

• pedestrians
• motorists
• overflowing household garbage cans
• overflowing commercial containers
• loading docks
• construction sites
• uncovered trucks
• Litter is often wind-blown until it is trapped somewhere or goes down a storm drain.
   

How does litter affect us? - Even small amounts of litter are unsightly, unhealthy and dangerous and may cause the following:

• fires
• pollution
• accidents
• low morale
• diseases in people and animals
• declining tourism and industry
   

Why do people litter? - People tend to litter...

• when an area is already littered
• when they don't feel a sense of ownership or community pride
• when they think someone else will clean it up
   

What can we do to clean up litter? We can get involved as follows:

• organize a cleanup day through your municipality
• purchase anti-litter signs for our town
• sponsor contests in the schools
• help the elderly or disabled to clean up their yards
• raise awareness about litter through a public education campaign
• donate trash receptacles to the town
• empty trash receptacles on a regular basis
• conduct a litter survey to find the worst spots
• publicize our efforts in the local media
   

RECYCLE RESPONSIBLY

Avoid turning recyclables into litter on a windy day

• Use a lid to prevent the wind from blowing material out.
• If your material does not fit into one container, use more than one so that loose material is not sticking out.
• Flatten corrugated cardboard boxes and stack them into one unflattened box. Do not leave loose boxes on the ground.

Use properly sized containers

• The weight limit for a single container is 50 pounds when full.
• It is recommended that containers be no larger than 32 gallons each to avoid exceeding the weight limit.
• Containers must have handles.
• Retail stores now sell recycling carts with wheels that are too big. They will exceed the 50 pound weight limit when full. Do NOT use these large 64 and 95 gallon carts.

Only recycle what is acceptable

• Be careful to follow the recycling guidelines as advertised by your town and on the MCMUA’s website. There are specific guidelines regarding the materials that are and are not acceptable.
• Your cooperation with these guidelines is greatly appreciated. If you have questions please call your town’s recycling coordinator or the MCMUA at 973-285-8393.
   

Tag-It and Leave-It Recycling Inspections

When in Doubt, Throw it Out — That’s the Best Decision for the Environment

Not everything with a recycling symbol goes into your curbside recycling bin for single stream collection.

"Tag-It and Leave-It" Recycling Effort (PDF Description)

The MCMUA, which collects recycling in many of Morris County’s 39 towns, implements a “tag-it and leave-it” inspection program. If your recycling contains contaminants, the entire bin could be left at the curb.

The goal is to ensure that bulk recycling loads sent by the MUA to the recycling market don’t get rejected (and sent to a landfill) because they contain too many items that don’t meet recycling standards.

The most problematic recycling contaminants found by the Morris County MUA include:

• Plastic bags (Take them to a retail store with a dedicated bin for bags. They jam machinery.)
• Plastic film/plastic packaging
• Foam/Styrofoam (Discard in the trash.)
• Hangers (Plastic, metal or wood — they jam up the machinery.)
• Food waste
• Wood scraps
• Plastic bottles/containers coded #3, #4, #6 & #7 (Recycle only plastic bottles/containers coded #1, #2 & #5. No medicine bottles at all).
   

Just for clarification, these items don’t belong in your recycling container either: Paper coffee cups, dirty pizza boxes, paper towels, and some less likely items such as diapers, bowling balls, hypodermic needles, animal carcasses, batteries and electronics. Batteries can cause a fire at a recycling center. People sort recycling – not machines, so keep them safe.

Also, recyclables must be empty, clean and dry — without food residue.

Download the MCMUA’s recycling flyer here and post it in your kitchen.

The MCMUA’s revised plastics acceptability guidelines now limits plastic recycling collection to only bottles/containers coded #1, #2 & #5.