By Sunayana Prabhu
TINTON FALLS – Despite years of efforts to control recurring odors from the landfill at the Monmouth County Reclamation Center, complaints from nearby communities have persisted. Now, some borough residents have filed a class action lawsuit against Waste Management of New Jersey, Inc., the company that operates and maintains the landfill. The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and more than $5 million in damages to end the excessive odor problems.
The law firms of Liddle Sheets and Cohen & Riechelson filed the lawsuit March 24 on behalf of three borough residents, Brenda Jennings, Katherine Scott and Matthew Rotunno. All three live along Shafto Road.
The lawsuit claims that ongoing foul odors from the facility have disrupted daily life and could potentially depreciate property values.
Waste Management’s operation of the Monmouth County Reclamation Center, located at 6000 Asbury Ave., “has released, and continues to release overwhelming and widespread noxious odors that invade Plaintiffs’ residential properties, and similarly situated residential properties, causing property damages through private nuisance, public nuisance, and negligence,” the lawsuit claims, adding that the recurring problem has impacted nearly 2,700 nearby households.
Residents have said the odor wafting from the landfill is similar to garbage or “rotten eggs.”
The landfill receives household, commercial and construction waste. According to the filing, the landfill produces gases and liquids as waste decomposes, including hydrogen sulfide, which can emit strong odors even at very low concentrations.
The plaintiffs allege the company failed to properly manage those emissions through adequate gas collection, leachate control and daily covering of waste.
“Everybody over here is just sick and tired of it,” Jennings said in an interview April 9. Most of the residents are concerned that the issue may depreciate their property values, but more importantly, she said, “our main concern is our health and our happiness, about being able to use our property without having to smell that.”
A resident of Lincoln Court since 2016, Jennings confirmed more than 900 odor complaints have been made to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection since 2021, along with inspection reports in which regulators confirmed landfill-related smells in surrounding neighborhoods.
Some residents have complained that the smell wafting through the neighborhood has prevented them and others from opening windows, spending time outdoors or hosting guests. The lawsuit seeks to represent thousands of homeowners and renters living in a close proximity to the site.
Kelly Whalen, a resident in a community across from the landfill for five years, said the odor is most noticeable at night. “It grosses me out if I’m hanging out in my backyard,” she said.
“It was good for a year and then it came back again,” Fox Chase community resident Carl Pinal said about the recurring problem, which he noted was less noticeable during the winter months. During warmer days, “usually when it’s nice out,” he said, it gets noticeable.
In addition to monetary damages exceeding $5 million, the lawsuit demands a jury trial requiring the company to address the alleged odor problem. Waste Management, which is headquartered in Texas, has not yet filed a response in court. The company did not respond to email requests for comment.
In a Jan. 31 statement posted on the borough website, Tinton Falls officials notified residents about a short-term odor control project at the landfill starting Feb. 2.
According to the borough’s statement, Waste Management was scheduled to install new gas collection lines along the east side of the landfill, near Shafto Road, closest to surrounding neighborhoods. These gas collectors are designed to capture landfill gases more effectively and reduce odors over time.
Borough officials expected the project to last approximately two weeks, weather permitting. During excavation, an odor-neutralizing product was to be used extensively to help limit any odors from escaping the site. As each section of work was completed, the new gas lines were to be connected daily to the landfill’s vacuum system.
While this is a short-term project, officials said it was “an important step in improving odor control in areas closest to residential neighborhoods.”
But the odors are still a problem despite mitigation efforts, Jennings said. “As soon as they (borough officials) get a lot of complaints, they say they are working on it and fixing it. We still have the smell on rainy days and now that the weather is getting warmer, I’m sure it’s going to be horrendous again,” she said.
In 2019, the county hired Waste Management to operate and maintain the landfill that has been collecting over 400,000 tons of waste annually from 53 towns in Monmouth County. The Household Hazardous Waste Facility is located adjacent to the Reclamation Center and offers additional waste disposal services for residents.
“We want it to run efficiently and keep people happy. That was our two goals,” said Monmouth County Commissioner Director Thomas Arnone during a March 2025 borough council meeting, which he attended to address odor mitigation efforts.
In a presentation during the same meeting, Monmouth County Deputy Administrator Geoffrey Perselay added that the county had already spent about $35 million in mitigation efforts.
When residents complained about the stench last year, officials from Waste Management attributed the surge in odor to months of “hard, heavy, fast” rainfall.
While the county has been making significant efforts to mitigate the longstanding concerns, several residents have been urging officials to close the facility permanently to resolve the issue.
“There will be a day it’s built out, without a doubt,” Arnone said last year. “I don’t know when that day is.”
The county did not respond by press time for comments on the current situation.
The article originally appeared in the April 16 – 22, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
