Upcoming Public Hearing - Van Keuren LLC Proposal Is Bad For Jersey City, Please Weigh In !
/Van Keuran LLC. is planning to build a TS / MRF (Trash Station/Material Recovery Facility) around St.Paul's and Tonnelle Avenue. While this sounds like another run-of-the-mill environmentally friendly trash sorting “Community Benefits Project”, it’s actually very harmful to the residents, commuters, and the environment.The proposed location of the facility sits within a mile of several School, Church, Senior Housing, Park and Childcare facilities and is being built in an already overburdened community. The public hearing for the (TS / MRF) is currently scheduled for April 28, 2026 at 6:00 PM and we want to inform the community at-large that this is NOT OK and ask for your support in turning out for the Public Hearing, either in-person or via Zoom, even if you do not live in Ward C or Ward D. This proposed facility will have negative environmental impacts that will reach across the entire city of Jersey City, e.g., air quality !
Here’s What You Need To Know
What is a Transfer Station (TS) and Material Recovery Facility (MRF)?
A Transfer Station is where garbage trucks dump their loads before the waste is hauled away to its final destination. A Material Recovery Facility sorts recyclables. Together, they mean a constant, heavy stream of large commercial trucks — diesel-burning, noise-producing, road-damaging trucks rolling through our streets every single day. AND this facility is not just managing Jersey City Material Wastes - it is a REGIONAL FACILITY !
The Traffic Problem Is Real
Van Keuran Avenue and the surrounding streets were not designed to absorb industrial truck traffic at this scale. Our neighborhood already deals with congestion from Routes 1 & 9 and the Turnpike corridor. Adding a waste facility to this mix means more idling trucks, longer commutes for residents, dangerous conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, and accelerated wear on local roads that the city will then have to repair.
This is what happens every time a facility like this opens in an urban neighborhood. The trucks don't use highways exclusively. They use our streets.
[NOTE: Jersey City already has 2 other IWS owned Transfer Facilities for Solid & Hazardous Waste (Regional) on the Westside of Jersey - we do not need another.]
Environmental Justice Is the Real Issue
Under New Jersey's landmark Environmental Justice Law, the community by Van Keuren community qualifies as an overburdened community. Under NJ's Environmental Justice Law, an overburdened community is one where at least 35% of households qualify as low-income, at least 40% of residents identify as minority, or at least 40% of households have limited English proficiency. The law exists precisely because communities like ours have historically been chosen as dumping grounds for the infrastructure nobody else wants. New Jersey's Environmental Justice Law addresses environmental permits issued in overburdened communities and how the state intends to protect vulnerable residents from bearing a disproportionate share of adverse environmental and public health consequences.
Distinguished Transfer Stations and MRFs are explicitly named as Community Environmental Stressors under this law. The law defines environmental and public health stressors to include concentrated areas of air pollution, mobile sources of air pollution, contaminated sites, transfer stations and other solid waste facilities, recycling facilities, scrap yards, and point-sources of water pollution, as well as conditions that may cause public health impacts such as asthma, cancer, elevated blood lead levels, cardiovascular disease, and developmental problems. Our neighborhood already has its share of these stressors – adding another one will only pile on these issues.
What the Law Allows — And What You Can Do
Here's the powerful part: Under its pioneering Environmental Legislation, New Jersey is the first state in the nation required to issue permit denials for new facilities that cannot avoid disproportionate impacts on overburdened communities or serve a compelling public interest. That means this permit can be denied. But the NJDEP has to hear from us first !
At the April 28th Public Hearing, the permit applicant - Van Keuren LLC - must provide clear and complete information about the proposed facility and the potential environmental and public health stressors associated with it. The applicant must accept written and oral comments from any interested party, provide a meaningful opportunity for public participation, and subsequently respond to every comment / question presented either in-person or in writing, . Following the hearing, NJDEP must consider the testimony presented and any oral and written comments received and documented before making a permit decision.
Sustainable Jersey City has retained the Eastern Environmental Law Center to assist us and Jersey City in pushing back on this very bad idea - here are their insights and helpful talking points to further educate the public.
Please not there will be a Community Education Meeting via Zoom closer to the date of the Public Hearing hosted by Councilman Jake and Councilman Tom Zuppa - date tbd so stay tuned👍
That means April 28th at 6pm is your moment. Come to the hearing as body count matters - we need to fill the room ! Speak on the record. Bring your neighbors. Bring your concerns. Every comment becomes part of the official record that NJDEP must weigh.
If you can not attend in-person please plan to attend via Zoom - instructions will be sent in response to email requests sent to publichearing@complianceplusservices.com or or Click “Attend Meeting Virtually” via Van Keuren’s website here https://www.complianceplusservices.com/Van-Keuren. [If you encounter any issues write to Suhhas.Vittal@SustainableJC.org]
Written comments should be sent to: Van Keuren, LLC., c/o Compliance Plus Services, 240 Gibraltar Road, Ste. 100, Horsham, PA 19044.
The Public Comment Period is from March 27, 2026 through May 28, 2026. The Public Hearing Date is on April 28, 2026 from 6PM to 8PM - in person @ The Hall (Moose Hall) on the West Side, 60 West Side Avenue, Jersey City, NJ 07305 .
Jersey City is only as strong as our weakest link - please participate in this process to push back on this proposed facility in this overburdened neighbhorhood on our West Side, to deny Van Keuren LLC an operating permit here in JC, EVEN IF YOU DON’T LIVE IN WARD C OR IN WARD D. We do not want them here.
