Westville Council Approves New Electronic Recycling Program

By Sara Martino

NEWS Correspondent

  Westville Borough Council listened to a report March 12 about how the elimination of certain electronic products from the waste stream would reduce the cost of tipping fees and help the Borough meet state recycling requirements.

  John Martorano Jr. of Magnum Industries, a premium electronic recycler, told Council members that his company can handle the electronic trash.

  "Computers, when broken down, become a commodity and the Borough could realize rebates and recycling certificates," he said.

  The computers can be broken down into 18 parts.

  Hard drives are completely destroyed and the computer boards are valuable to certain industries.

  The components are classified as universal waste and a serial number list is kept of the main parts, Martarano said.

  Currently, the computers are sent to Unicor, a government concern that dismantles the products. Then they are re-purchased by Magnum Industries for distribution to other buyers.

  Martarano is expecting to receive a special Class D license that would then allow his company to dismantle products instead of sending them out.

  The Westville Environmental Commission was instrumental in bringing the idea to the attention of borough officials, after they heard a presentation from Magnus, Industries and visited the plant at 1030 Delsea Drive.

  They asked him to appear before the governing body to discuss the idea.

  Donna Domico, public works manager, said she had already thought about it and the removal of such trash from the waster stream will definitely help to save the borough money.

  A motion was made by Councilwoman Susan Rod-gers and seconded by Councilman James Pennington to accept the concept. Details will be worked out concerning how the rebate system will work. Residents may go to www.thanksforbeinggreen.com for more information on the electronic recycling.

  In other business, Council discussed the recod-ification of the Borough ordinance book.

  "The last time, this was undertaken was 31 years ago," Rodgers said.

  The cost would be $20,000 to bring the code book up to date or $10,000 to update it to only the year 2007. Payments could be broken down to $4000 a year for five years and then $600 to $1000 per year for maintenance.

  All new ordinances after the project is completed would be added and would be available to the public on the Borough's website.

  During the public portion, resident Virginia Horn asked if any pharmaceutical remnants in the borough drinking water.

  "The levels are so minute, we haven't tested for any. Our water comes from 300 feet deep in the ground, most of the problems exist in water drown from the river. When tests are needed we will test the aquifer that we use," Domico said.

  Joyce Lovell, chairman of the Environmental Commission, said there may be more contaminants in an unregulated bottle of purchased water than the tap water.

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