New Jersey Report Says Mob Still In Recycling, Hauling

The New Jersey Commission of Investigation released “Circumvention of Oversight: Industrious Subversion In Solid Waste and Recycling in New Jersey.” A report that claims that because of lack of oversight by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, a number of organized crime figures have been able to start up and work in those industries, including C&D operations.

The reason this could happen is because of a lack of funding for the oversight that DEP has been given to do the job. By law all principal persons involved in a waste-related company must be scrutinized and vetted by state police and the agency to make sure there are no organized crime connections. However, according to the report, “Despite these actions, the integrity of this industry remains in peril. The State Commission of Investigation, which first uncovered significant criminal intrusion into solid waste as far back as the late 1960s, has found that the industry today remains open to manipulation and abuse by criminal elements that circumvent the State’s existing regulatory and oversight system. The urgency of this matter is compounded by evidence that convicted felons, including organized crime members and associates, profit heavily from commercial recycling, which, though a lucrative adjunct to solid waste, has remained largely unregulated.”

The report gives several lurid examples of certain people and companies that it says prove its points. In the appendix to the report are several letters from the people named in it explaining why the commission is incorrect in its assumptions.

The full report is available at http://www.state.nj.us/sci/index.shtm

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