Municipalities may soon owe the state for the volume of refuse they produce as part of a new effort to ratchet up recycling efforts in the Garden State.

The taxing scheme is part of New Jersey's new Solid Waste Management Plan - set to be finalized on Jan. 3, according to Department of Environmental Protection officials.

But a recycling agency official called the new plan "weak" and a step backward in terms of encouraging waste reduction. Al Du Bois based his opinion on a draft of the new plan, first released in March.

The solid waste plan doesn't address the fundamental problem underlying sluggish recycling rates - getting the packaging industry to create more environmentally friendly products, said Du Bois, vice chairman of the Passaic County Solid Waste Advisory Council and recycling coordinator for Clifton.

New Jersey recycles about 32 percent of its recyclable waste, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. The draft establishes a 50 percent recycling rate goal.

"How are you going to solve any problems, if you don't help industry to create products that are reusable, refillable and that create less waste?" Du Bois asked.

Under current plans the state would begin taxing municipalities $3 per ton of garbage generated. Municipalities currently do not pay any state taxes on their garbage but did pay a $1.50-per-ton tax from 1987 to 1996.

The tax also will burden taxpayers, Du Bois added.

Passaic County's recycling rate decreased between 1995 and 2003 by more than eight percentage points, to 51.8 percent, according to the state DEP.

Under the new solid waste plan, Clifton would pay about $175,000 a year in garbage taxes, Du Bois said. The state provides annual grants to municipalities for recycling programs, but the money wouldn't compensate the amount paid in taxes, he said.

"We'll be lucky if we get back $100,000," Du Bois said.

The Clifton City Council passed a resolution in May opposing New Jersey's new Solid Waste Management Plan, saying, "The state needs to encourage and assist private industry with incentives to create reliable, realistic, actual solutions to the management of solid waste."

William Schug, West Milford's recycling coordinator, didn't want to comment on the specifics of the new solid waste plan, but said the municipality receives only about a $35,000 grant from the state for its recycling program each year to help, which helps pay for trash cleanup on the highways and roads that run through the town.

The state began recycling enforcement in 1987 with the New Jersey Statewide Mandatory Source Separation and Recycling Act.