Please see our Board Member/Technical Advisory Committee Member Application Package (below). We are reviewing submissions with a timeline for decisions by our January 24-25 board retreat.

Who we are

Here at the Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership (LRWP), we believe that a healthy Raritan River and Lower Raritan Watershed is possible, restored and sustained through collaboration, participatory science, and stewardship.

Our work connects the dots between individual action and collective impact, realizing healthy ecological connections on the path to a healthy watershed. As a growing 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a slate of new programs coming on line in 2026, the LRWP is looking for Board Members and Technical Advisory Committee Members to join us in this shared work. While we are open to contributions from individuals with expertise of all kinds, we are also seeking individuals with experience in fundraising.

About the Board

The Board of Directors (“Board”) of LRWP is a working and governing board and is responsible for oversight of the strategic, financial, operational, and policy decisions for the organization. At present, the Board manages the administration of policy and practice as well as operations. Membership of the Board should represent leaders who demonstrate significant commitment and passion for the organization’s mission, strategic planning, and organizational success. Reporting to the Board Chair, Board Members typically serve three-year terms and make a meaningful financial commitment to the organization on an annual basis.

About the Technical Advisory Committee

Our Technical Advisory Committee meets 2-3x a year, providing “on call” expertise and often serving on behalf of the LRWP as liaison or representative with other organizations, committees or boards. The Technical Advisory Committee members report to the Chair of the LRWP Organizational Support Committee. Membership of the Technical Advisory Committee should represent field experts or community leaders whose knowledge and work dovetails in significant way with the LRWP’s initiatives. Technical Advisory Committee Members typically serve three-year terms and are expected to participate in key annual organizational events (TAC meetings, the LRWP Annual Meeting, etc).

By LRWP Volunteer Irene Riegner

Tons of rubbish. A great pyramid of rubbish. Bulldozers scoop up the rubbish and prepare it for recycling, but, miraculously, the pile doesn’t diminish. This is Bayshore Recycling Corp. a group of recycling companies in Keasbey, New Jersey, a company that the Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership recently visited along with a few members of Sustainable Highland Park.

Inside a cavernous shed, a bulldozer dumps plastic bags stuffed with paper and cardboard into a dumpster; the dumpster unloads the bundles onto an upward-moving conveyor belt. Two sorters remove the plastic bags and insert them into suction tubes. The paper and cardboard continue merrily along the conveyor belt until they reach the sorting machine. While the paper swirls around in the machine, optical sorting technology sorts it by light; different thicknesses of paper reflect different amounts of light. The sorted paper floats down into compartments: One for cardboard, one for the paper sheets, and one for shredded paper. Eventually, the cardboard is mechanically tied into large bales where a sorter pulls out any remaining pieces of plastic and the bale is moved to a pile of other large bales of cardboard, ready to be converted into pulp. Likewise, the plastic is baled and and moved to the plastic section.

The cardboard/paper operation is a small part of Bayshore Recycling. According to Michael Oppelt, the operations manager, Bayshore also recycles the hard stuff: Construction debris, asphalt, bricks, concrete slabs, metals, soil contaminated with oil. Concrete slabs, asphalt, and blocks are smashed, then sorted into three sizes, 3/4”, 1 1/2”, and 2 1/2”, and resold as fill material for projects such as road beds. Meanwhile, the dump trucks keep coming. They roll into the Bayshore compound, get weighed, jettison their products, get weighed again, and roll out. Over and over, round and round, like a bicycle chain, the trucks holding recyclables keep coming.