Four More Towns Join Township, Others on Trash-Disposal Alliance

A total of eight South Jersey towns, including Gloucester Township and Cherry Hill, are now jointly seeking bids for trash-disposal services.

The township joined Cherry Hill, Merchantville and Voorhees in March in announcing a four-municipality cooperative-purchasing alliance aimed at cutting trash-disposal costs.

On Friday, Cherry Hill announced that Collingswood, Haddon Township, Somerdale and Winslow have joined the alliance, which now spans about 122 square miles and includes some 87,000 households.

“We’re bringing a lot of business to the table, and vendors know they need to cut our costs or they’ll lose that business,” Cherry Hill Mayor Bernie Platt said in a statement. “We’ve seen it work in the past, and I think we’ll see the same result in this instance.”

Gloucester Township joined with Cherry Hill—the municipality and its school district—and Merchantville last year on a $28.6 million trash-removal contract with Republic Services. Mayor David Mayer says the deal will save the township nearly $650,000 compared to the prior contract.

The three towns and the school district will save a total of about $2.75 million over the five-year contract as compared to their prior deals, officials said.

The Township Council unanimously approved the trash-disposal alliance at its March 14 meeting.

The township's trash currently is hauled to a dump in Pennsylvania. Every other Camden County town sees its trash taken to an incinerator in Camden, Mayer said.