Recycling Company's Closure Leaves Some Towns with Balance Due

NorthJersey.com

Oakland, Waldwick and Mahwah are among the municipalities in Bergen and Passaic counties which a recycling company left holding the bag after shuttering with only a day’s notice on Sept. 5.

Green Sky Industries of Clifton and Carteret in Middlesex County had promoted itself as the state’s largest private recycler with 75 municipal contracts, many with towns in Bergen and Passaic counties. In a letter to those communities on Sept. 4, it announced it was closing. The next day, when operations managers handed out paychecks to more than 100 employees at the plants, they were accompanied by pink slips explaining "declining business conditions" had forced its hand, according to a report in The Record.

Oakland Borough Administrator Richard Kunze said last week the firm owes the borough about $60,000.

"We met with them over the summer and began working out a restructured proposal to pay us back, and then comes the notice they’re closing," Kunze said.

Waldwick also found itself piled high and deep. The borough’s Business Administrator Gary Kratz said the company owes it more than $10,000 in back payments — money it may never see.

"We enjoyed high prices for years," Kunze said. "But what are you going to do? It’s a market-based system."

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