Passaic County and Clifton have come up with a way to reduce trash sent to landfills

As garbage removal costs continue to skyrocket, Passaic County is trying to think outside the box to further reduce the waste that is hauled off to landfills in trucks.

The latest idea is to remove polystyrene from the waste stream.

Polystyrene, a plastic product used to make packing peanuts, Styrofoam products and other similar items, reportedly takes up 30% of the space in landfills.

The county and Clifton arrived at a shared service agreement last month, to make the city the county's repository for polystyrene. A few details have yet to be ironed out before the deal becomes a reality.

Even though it takes up almost a third of landfills, polystyrene has generally not been recycled. The puffy plastic product is quite light and voluminous, making it difficult to store in large quantities, and as a result it does not provide much of a return for the effort.

To make it worth the effort, recycling polystyrene requires the use of a densifier, a machine that compresses the plastic so it can be more easily stored and shipped.

In return for the use of the county's densifier, Clifton will accept containers of the material from all 16 Passaic County municipalities.

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Clifton initially looked to buy its own densifier last year, but the City Council opted against it.

The solution came when the county agreed to let the city use its machine for a fee of $1 per year, Clifton City Manager Nick Villano said.

Passaic County officials said the densifier was underused and this should be a good solution for all involved.

The hope, Villano said, is to reduce the amount of solid waste that is shipped off to landfills. He said Sussex County is among the counties in the state that recycle polystyrene.

The plan does not call for the recycling of all polystyrene products — for example, Styrofoam cups and plates, whose name is a trademark owned by DuPont, as well as packing peanuts, are not among the items that will be accepted. Other items including larger packing materials will be accepted for recycling.

The densifier the city will receive from Passaic County is about the size of an ATM, Villano said. Individual towns will collect the materials, and containers about the size of PODS storage units will be sent to Clifton.

Villano said that after the city's recent switch to commingled recycling, a few of the barn buildings behind City Hall became available. City workers will process the polystyrene, Villano said.

Once it is compacted, there is market for the material. It is used in items such as picture frames, molding and baseboards.

Villano said he is not sure how much the city will earn from the recyclables but estimated it at about $18,000. He said it's the savings from taking trash from the waste stream that counts.

"We not doing it because we anticipate a big revenue," Villano said. "The goal is not to make money but to remove it from the solid waste stream."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Passaic County looks to remove polystyrene from solid waste stream