Three years after fire, Atlantic Coast Recycling Center reopens in Passaic

More than three years after a fire razed PASSAIC to the ground in January 2021, Atlantic Coast Recycling is officially back in business.

The $20 million, 128,000-square-foot “state-of-the-art” recycling center on the banks of the Passaic River reopened Friday to much fanfare, with numerous officials representing the city, region and state present.

Janine MacGregor, director of the sustainable waste management division of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said this is the first facility on the East Coast.

“New technologies mean more efficient and profitable recycling,” she said. Coupled with state measures such as a 2022 ban on single-use plastic bags that eliminated 5.5 billion single-use plastic bags, the state has been able to reduce the amount of plastic entering landfills.

The fire that destroyed the Seventh Street recycling facility was considered a disaster in many ways. It burned for days, local officials said, costing the city jobs and increasing recycling costs for dozens of North Jersey cities.

The facility can process 50 tonnes of municipal waste per hour and up to 20,000 tonnes per month, and the three-year disruption is costly and painful as recycling haulers have to travel further distances, increasing recycling costs for taxpayers. City officials, including Paul Salo of Woodridge.