It was 1981. Faced with a near-capacity landfill that would soon shut down, Woodbury became the first municipality in New Jersey — and, arguably, the nation — to adopt a mandatory curbside recycling program.
Don Sanderson, a Republican city councilman who might well be unable to win a primary election in today’s GOP, pushed hard for the program, citing both the need to preserve disposal space and the waste of tossing reclaimable glass, paper and metals into ordinary garbage. Even 42 years ago, there was political pushback for requiring that households separate reusable items from regular trash.
The rest, as they say, is history, and mandatory recycling later became the law all over New Jersey and elsewhere.