2026 DEP Recycling Award Winners in the Spotlight

There were many impressive achievements in the field of recycling and waste reduction in New Jersey this past year. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection recognizes these accomplishments through its annual Recycling Awards program. The 2026 DEP recycling award winners are:

Leadership: Table to Table

Table to Table, a nonprofit organization located in Saddle Brook, is a community-based food rescue program that collects fresh, nutritious, surplus perishable food that would otherwise be wasted and delivers it free to organizations serving the hungry in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, and Passaic counties.

This program not only addresses hunger in New Jersey, but also diverts wasted food from landfills, which, in turn, reduces greenhouse gas generation. In 2025, Table to Table diverted and rescued more than 25 million pounds of surplus food from numerous sources.

About Table to Table

Table to Table (http://www.tabletotable.org) is New Jersey’s first and largest food rescue nonprofit, bridging the gap between food being wasted and people facing food insecurity. We work with food businesses of all types to rescue fresh, nutritious surplus food, and deliver it for free to 300+ social service organizations, pantries, shelters, community produce markets and centralized distribution hubs. Through our community partnerships, Table to Table reaches families, children, veterans, older adults, and others in need, improving food security, nutritional access, and better health. Since 1999 we have rescued more than 133,271 tons of nutritious food — enough for 266,452,863 meals — and delivered it to our neighbors in need, while also saving over 544 metric tons of methane from impacting climate change by preventing food waste.