Middlesex County SWAC approves earlier acceptance hours for Republic Services transfer station in Middlesex Borough

The Middlesex County Solid Waste Advisory Committee on Feb. 11 approved Administrative Action 2-25, allowing Republic Services to change the transfer station acceptance window at its Middlesex Borough facility to 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Sunday.

The change, presented by Brian Henning of Mott MacDonald with Republic Services representative Sheena McCarthy present, is intended to shorten the time between when materials are collected and when they can be tipped at the transfer station. Henning told the committee the request is limited to acceptance hours and "will not alter, that is push forward the starting time for when Republic will begin daily collection of material from its customers nor will this change or trigger an increase in the volume of trucks entering the transfer station." He added that truck counts are expected to remain similar to current levels.

Henning said Mott MacDonald provided a courtesy notification about the request to Middlesex Borough and that he spoke by phone on Jan. 17 with Leonard Vidal, the borough's DPW director. "During our discussion, mister Vidal expressed no immediate concerns or objections, although he did mention mindfulness of nuisance noise," Henning said.

The administrative action as read into the record names the facility as Republic Services New Jersey LLC, Middlesex Borough TSMRF located at 92 Bakeland Avenue, block 352, lot 1.02. The record states the facility is authorized to accept solid waste types "10, 13, 13 c, 23, 20 5, and 27" for processing, recovery and transfer, and lists a capacity of 600 tons per day with a daily maximum of 720 tons and a weekly maximum of 3,600 tons. The action changes only the hours for acceptance; processing hours, the record says, remain unchanged (processing currently authorized 24 hours per day).

Councilman Joe DeCenzo of Middlesex Borough, who was present for the meeting, said: "I do not have any, this is the first I'm hearing of it but knowing where Republic is and that section of town I don't think there'll be any, serious response." Committee members asked for questions; none were offered. Nick Smolley moved the administrative action and Councilman Joe DeCenzo seconded. The motion passed; several members recorded abstentions during roll call, and one member named in the discussion was Angela, who was asked to abstain. The transcript does not specify a full roll-call tally for yes/no votes.

Henning described the facility surroundings as industrially zoned on all sides and noted no immediately adjacent residential zoning. He listed neighboring properties as another transfer station to the east (also owned by Republic, formerly Importico), White Marsh Corporation to the west, a Best Buy warehouse to the south across Bakeland Avenue, and a commercial pipe storage yard and railroad tracks to the north. He told the committee Republic has operated the facility under a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) solid waste facility permit for several decades and that the company "operate[s] a safe and clean facility" and adheres to its solid waste and stormwater permits.

The committee did not alter processing hours or the facility's permitted tonnage limits. Committee members and presenters emphasized the request was operationally narrow: to allow drivers to arrive and begin tipping earlier so material spends less time in vehicles after collection.

Other agenda items during the meeting included reminders about recycling enhancement grants, a paper-shred grant program, a larger recycling education grant (with a March 10 application deadline), and notice that SWAC elections will be held in April. Those items received routine updates and no formal committee action at this meeting.

The committee closed the meeting after a short general-public period with no public comments recorded.