New Jersey § 13:1e-2

§ 13:1e-2.

a. The Legislature finds that the collection, disposal and utilization of solid waste

is a matter of grave concern to all citizens and is an activity thoroughly affected

with the public interest; that the health, safety and welfare of the people of this

State require efficient and reasonable solid waste collection and disposal service

or efficient utilization of such waste; that the management of solid waste in New

Jersey consists largely of piecemeal, uncoordinated activities developed to meet the

immediate needs of local governments with little, if any, regard for regional planning

and coordination; that local units of government acting on their own, despite the

most dedicated and sincere efforts, lack the financial resources, scope of alternatives

and expertise to plan, develop and implement efficient and effective solutions to

their solid waste problems; and that, for the most part, the solid waste planning

and management process is adversely affected by the absence of area-wide structures,

the limitations of local initiative, the general inadequacy of State technical assistance,

the paucity of State grants for solid waste experimentation, the failure of the State

to establish guidelines for the preparation of county and intercounty plans, and the

failure to implement county and intercounty solid waste collection, disposal and utilization

operations. b. The Legislature, therefore, declares that it is the policy of this State to (1) Establish a statutory framework within which all solid waste collection, disposal

and utilization activity in this State may be coordinated; (2) Designate each county in this State and the Hackensack Meadowlands District as

a Solid Waste Management District, and provide each county and the Hackensack Meadowlands

Development Commission with the power, singly or jointly with one or more other districts,

to develop and implement a comprehensive solid waste management plan which meets the

needs of every municipality within each such county and within the Hackensack Meadowlands

District; (3) Provide citizens and municipalities with opportunities to contribute to the development

and implementation of solid waste management plans by requiring public hearings prior

to their adoption and by the creation of advisory solid waste councils; (4) Protect the bondholders of the several incinerator authorities, solid waste management

authorities, municipal public utility authorities, county improvement authorities,

and other public authorities concerned with solid waste management functions and facilities,

while coordinating their activities under solid waste management plans; (5) Expand and strengthen the existing relationships between the solid waste industry,

representing the free enterprise system and the public sector, including the State

and municipal governments and the districts established by this act, in order that

both may most effectively contribute to an efficient and economical solution to the

problem of solid waste management and to take into account the long term financial

commitments entered into by solid waste facilities and to recognize, through the Public

Utilities Commission the added cost of compliance with environmental standards by

the provision of equitable rate increases; (6) Establish a meaningful and responsible role for the State in the solution of solid

waste problems by granting the Department of Environmental Protection and the Solid

Waste Advisory Council the power, not only to regulate and supervise all solid waste

collection and disposal facilities and operations and to register all persons engaged

in the collection or disposal of solid waste in this State, but also to develop through

a Statewide solid waste management plan objectives, criteria and procedures to assure

the orderly preparation and evaluation of the solid waste management plans developed

by every solid waste management district, and to approve, modify, or reject such solid

waste management plans on the basis of their conformity with such objectives, criteria

and procedures, to develop and implement such a plan where none is approved or forthcoming

from any solid waste management district, to arbitrate disputes between solid waste

management districts in the development and implementation of solid waste management

plans, to utilize the funds received by the department from registration fees and

such other funds as may be from time to time appropriated to it to support and undertake

experimental projects and programs of research and development to determine the most

efficient, sanitary and economical ways of collecting, disposing, limiting and utilizing

solid waste, to grant funds to the districts for the formulation and development of

solid waste management plans, and to take such other actions in accordance with the

policies set forth in this act, all in the manner and extent hereinafter provided; (7) Encourage resource recovery through the development of systems to collect, separate,

recycle and recover metals, glass, paper and other materials of value for reuse or

for energy production. c. The Legislature recognizes that solid waste and recycling facilities will be financed

through long term borrowing which requires the negotiation of long term contracts

with municipalities and other solid waste collectors to guarantee the flow of solid

waste to such facilities. The Legislature, however, does not intend to encourage or permit the public entity,

or its designees, that holds these contracts to establish or charge rates to municipalities

or other solid waste collectors within its jurisdiction which discriminate on the

basis of the cost of disposal at a particular facility which has been designated as

the place of disposal for the solid waste of such municipality or other solid waste

collector pursuant to an approved solid waste management plan for that district.