BY DICK METZGAR
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY staff Monmouth County Solid Waste Coordinator Larry Zaayenga oversees operations at the county landfill in Tinton Falls. Zaayenga has been with the county for 28 years. Larry Zaayenga jokingly refers to himself as Monmouth County's "garbage man."

But make no mistake about it, the county's solid waste coordinator has one of the most important and challenging tasks of any of the county's professionals.

It is Zaayenga's responsibility to help see that there is a feasible plan in place for the removal of solid waste from the wide expanse of the county, not only for the present, but for years into the future.

The issue of the removal of solid waste, as well as other kinds of trash and garbage, is a fluid one, ever changing because of rapid development in the county, new technology and more demanding state and federal regulations.

It is an issue that Zaayenga, a Howell resident, has been dealing with for the last 28 years as the county's "garbage man."

Although Zaayenga noted that he had very little knowledge about the disposal of solid waste when he came to the county in search of a job 28 years ago, about two years after the Monmouth County Reclamation Center was created in Tinton Falls in 1976, he has to be considered an expert in the field at this point of his career.

The solid waste coordinator's office is a function of the county Planning Board.

"Bob Halsey was the director of the Planning Board when I came to the county looking for a job," Zaayenga said. "He told me the county wanted somebody to work with solid waste and my first reaction was 'What's solid waste?' but I was to find out in a hurry, and I'm still learning all the time."

Zaayenga grew up in Freehold Township, attended grammar school at St. Rose of Lima, Freehold Borough, graduated from Red Bank Catholic High School in 1970, attended the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and graduated from Rutgers University's Cook College.

After getting his job with the county, he started his new career from the bottom.

"I got my training on the job by going along on a garbage truck for a couple of weeks to get a feel of what that was like," Zaayenga said. 'Then I spent a week or so working at the facility in Tinton Falls in the building where they received the garbage. The people there had no idea who I was at the time."

He has since experienced the development of all three phases of the 1,000-acre landfill, with the last, Phase 3, opening in August 1997.

He was also involved in the proposal to build a multimillion dollar incinerator at Tinton Falls, which was narrowly defeated in a November 1991 referendum. Zaayenga supported the incinerator at the time.

However, once the incinerator proposal was defeated, Zaayenga wasted no time directing his efforts to find other alternatives to get rid of the county's solid waste.

"That [the incinerator] is water under the bridge," he said. "The people let us know they didn't want an incinerator, so we have gone on from there."

He credits various county agencies, officials and professionals with helping to make his job easier over the years, including Halsey; current Freeholder Ted Narozanick, who was the county's administrator in the 1970s when the first solid was disposal plan was being hatched; the late Freeholder Director Harry Larrison Jr.; and John Gray, the now-retired superintendent of the Monmouth County Reclamation Center.

"We still have to look at all the options for the disposal of solid waste in the future," Zaayenga said. "Solid waste removal is ever-changing and fascinating. I'm sure we'll face many new challenges in the near future."