Reliable Recycling on 1 Craven Road recycles, among other materials, wood which is sometimes treated with solvents before arriving at the facility. The wood recycling has many of the neighborhood residents surrounding the recycler's facility fuming.

Resident Felicia Collis said she’s contacted the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to no avail.

“I was told operations would cease and then they start up again. It’s really magnifying the problem,” she said. “The recycling process is so extensive, dust travels onto residences on Garfield Avenue and on vehicles. The thickness of the dust is so great, you could take a finger and draw on surfaces.”

Zabriskie Street resident Ed Vergara said he was exhausted from contacting county and state agencies to resolve the problem. “First they got fined, but the problem persists,” he said. “At least three people have to make calls before the state does anything.”

Resident J.D. Allen said the scent is like “toxic fertilizer.”

Councilwoman Viola Richardson said she had a friend who used to live in the area. “The smell was so entrenched that she couldn’t open her windows. She had to sell her house and move.”

In an email response to questions regarding resolving the issue, Richardson said it has been “frustrating.”

“I notified the Corporate Council, who wrote a letter to Hudson Regional regarding this matter and asked for an investigation,” she noted, adding that she has not received a response.

NJDEP and Reliable Recycling employees did not return calls.