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N.J. Lawmaker Targets Organized Crime in State’s Recycling Industry
The attorney general’s office expressed reservations about extending the scope of the law.
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New Jersey State Senator Bob Smith said in comments this week that the Garden State needs to close loopholes to keep organized crime and felons out of the recycling industry.
“At the end of the day, we need a system that keeps the bad actor out,’’ Smith said during a hearing this week, according to NJSpotlight.com. “The mob’s back in the solid waste industry; they’re back big time.’’
In May, the State Commission of Investigation in N.J. said it was looking into claims that members of an organized crime group were making money by illegally disposing of contaminated waste near waterways and homes in the state.
The website has more about the hearing:
His frustration was voiced during a hearing on a bill (S-2306) by the Senate Environment and Energy committee aimed at expanding who is covered by the law and required to undergo background checks to keep unscrupulous operators out of the sector.
But the attorney general’s office expressed reservations about extending the scope of the law, known as the A-901 program, to include those involved in recycling. It was adopted when organized crime was rife in the hauling industry in the 1980s.
That view conflicts with a recommendation in a 2011 SCI report that called for those in the recycling industry to be licensed, a step once again the agency suggested lawmakers adopt.
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