Camden: totes in and out of the waterfront city

01What sits here

The city’s ZIPs are 08102, 08103, 08104 and 08105. Campbell’s is headquartered in Camden. Food manufacturing, port terminals, and scrap and recycling shape the waterfront. The Ben Franklin Bridge lands in the city and the Walt Whitman Bridge meets I-676 just south.

02Who has empties, who needs totes

Food makers put out ingredient and rinse empties, and scrap and recycling yards take damaged and dirty totes. That gives Camden both ends of the ladder in one district. A rinsed tote from a food maker is a plausible match for a garden across the river, and a cracked one has a recycler minutes away.

03Roads, rules and the move

I-676, NJ 42 and NJ 168 cross the city, with the Ben Franklin Bridge to Philadelphia’s Center City. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is the agency to ask.

04Next door

05On the ground

Camden’s waterfront is a short drive from the Ben Franklin Bridge, so a Philadelphia garden can collect a single tote from a Camden seller in an afternoon. Scrap yards on the south side take cracked and unclean totes, and a seller with a mixed pile can split it between the washer and the recycler in one visit. Say on the ticket whether the totes sit inside a fence, because several waterfront yards close early in the day.

06Weather, season and timing

Waterfront streets in Camden flood at high tide in a storm surge, so a pad near the river should be moved to higher ground before the forecast storm and not after. Sellers who stack totes on pallets in the open should strap them and cap them against wind. Buyers coming over the Ben Franklin Bridge from Center City should bring a hand truck, since several Camden docks lack ramps and a lone tote is awkward to carry down.

07A ticket from here

• Put one of the ZIP codes from the first table on the ticket.
• Say whether the totes are clean or for recycling.

08Bridges and terminals

The Ben Franklin Bridge lands in Camden and the Walt Whitman Bridge reaches Gloucester County just south, so a lot can reach Philadelphia gardens or Gloucester nurseries in minutes. Campbell’s is headquartered in the city, and the port terminals and scrap yards make the waterfront the place where the top and the bottom of the ladder sit within a mile of each other.

+More in Camden County, NJ

• PennsaukenFood and chemical distribution along Route 130.
• RecyclingWhere totes that can't be reused go: cages to rebottling, bottles to HDPE recycling, broken units to scrap, for plants across the Delaware Valley.
• Back to Camden County, NJ