How Wyckoff Works: What the Environmental Commission Actually Does

If you've dropped off an old can of paint or a dead car battery at Wyckoff's Fall Shred and Recycling Day, admired the new signage at Russell Farms Community Park — funded by one of roughly $17,000 in Sustainable Jersey grants the township has drawn since 2011 ^[1] — or watched a class of kids plant a tree on Arbor Day, ^[2] you've already encountered the work of the Wyckoff Environmental Commission, even if you've never heard the name. It's a handful of your neighbors, volunteering their time. And their reach goes beyond planting days: the commission also makes policy recommendations to the Township Committee, and its biggest one this year — a rule aimed at construction-site dust and plastic pollution — still hasn't reached the Township Committee, months later. ^[3][4]

The Environmental Commission is five to seven Wyckoff residents, appointed by the Township Committee, who serve as unpaid volunteers. ^[5] Its role is advisory, not legislative: the commission studies issues and recommends action, but the Township Committee is the body that actually adopts ordinances or spends money. It was created in 1972 under a New Jersey law that lets any municipality set up a body like it. ^[6] The current members are Chairman Ben Weiner, Secretary Denise Capparelli, and commissioners Peter "Chuck" Beucler, Christine Brenner, Danyel Competiello, Lisa Koeber, and Eric Murtha, with William Santala serving as the Planning Board's representative and Peter Melchionne as Township Committee liaison. ^[5][18] It meets the third Monday of most months, 7 p.m., in Town Hall's Ladderback Conference Room — no meeting in August. ^[7]

Its day-to-day, public-facing work is what most residents actually encounter: the spring Team Up to Tidy Up cleanup, the Arbor Day tree planting ^[2] at Washington Elementary School, the Zabriskie Pond Fishing Derby each June, the Fall Shred and Recycling Day, a compost workshop, and a booth at the Centennial Day street festival. ^[7] A newer addition this year is a pickleball-recycling bin program, run with the nonprofit P3 Cares, that collects worn-out pickleballs for recycling rather than the trash. Junior Commissioner Justin Madigan has been running a "Skip the Stuff" campaign asking local restaurants to make single-use plastic utensils opt-in rather than automatic; as of the July 20 meeting, the commission was still finalizing an outreach letter and business materials, funded through the township's Clean Communities program. ^[8]

The commission does more than run events, though — its most significant policy effort this year is a construction-waste ordinance recommendation. After a Dec. 15, 2025 presentation from Brian Thompson of the advocacy group Beyond Plastics NJ, who told the commission that construction-waste-containment ordinances — aimed at airborne "tabletop plastics" and dust from job sites — were already in effect in 22 New Jersey municipalities, including Bergen County's Haworth and Tenafly, ^[9] the commission voted 4-0 on March 16, 2026 to recommend Wyckoff adopt a similar rule. ^[3] As of the commission's own July 20, 2026 agenda, that recommendation was still listed as unresolved — it hasn't even been introduced to the Township Committee yet. ^[4] Asked for an update at the July 20 meeting, which Wyckoff News attended and recorded, Melchionne explained the holdup: Tom Gensheimer, who ran the building department, had retired, and the township's newly hired replacement needed time to review the proposal before it could move forward. ^[10]

One outside measure of the commission's work comes from Sustainable Jersey, a statewide nonprofit certification program that Wyckoff, like most New Jersey towns, voluntarily participates in. Since 2011, the Environmental Commission has also worn a second hat as Wyckoff's "Green Team," a designation Sustainable Jersey requires of any certified municipality. ^[11] The program works like a checklist with a scoreboard: towns document "actions" across categories — energy, waste, land use, public health, food systems — and each one is worth points toward Bronze (150-plus) or Silver (350-plus) certification, renewed on a multi-year cycle. Wyckoff first certified in 2011 and held Silver status through 2016, 2019, and 2022. ^[1] Then, in the fall of 2024, the commission opted for Bronze certification instead of Silver. Minutes from its Sept. 16, 2024 meeting record it plainly: Weiner "presented a summary of the SJ actions needed to achieve Bronze Certification. All Commissioners are in favor of Bronze Re-Certification," with Weiner and Capparelli handling most of the paperwork themselves. ^[12] The Bronze certification was formally awarded on Sept. 23, 2025, with 155 points — Wyckoff's own Oct. 20, 2025 meeting is simply when the commission reported the news to itself. ^[13]

Wyckoff isn't alone at the Bronze level, but several nearby Bergen County towns held Silver in the same 2025 cycle:

Statewide, 83 municipalities were certified in 2025 — 52 at Bronze, 31 at Silver, and 2 at the top Gold Star tier. ^[14]

The commission's reach extends beyond Wyckoff, too: Weiner is a founding Steering Committee member of the Sustainable Bergen Hub, a regional network that lets Green Teams from Bergen County towns trade ideas and coordinate. Advocacy from the Hub helped secure county funding for a foam-densifying recycling machine, now housed in Ridgefield Park and available to any municipality in the county. ^[1]

Getting involved is about as low-friction as local government gets: show up. "Join us at a WEC/WGT Meeting held on the third Monday of each month @ 7:00pm," the township's own page reads, directing questions to the commission chair. ^[15] Meeting minutes list a separate "Green Team Present" roster alongside the formal commissioners at nearly every meeting, and the names on it rotate — different volunteers show up meeting to meeting rather than a fixed membership. ^[12][3]

For high schoolers, the commission has run a Junior Environmental Commission Program since 2019: up to three non-voting students serve one-year terms assisting on projects. ^[6] Applicants use a dedicated Junior Environmental Commissioner volunteer application — separate from the general adult board/commission form — asking for the student's school, grade, extracurriculars, and volunteer history, returned to the Township Clerk's office. ^[16] At the July 20 meeting, the commission noted it's switching the program from a calendar-year to a school-year cycle; new Junior Commissioners will be selected in September rather than mid-summer. ^[17]