The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) is a government agency in the U.S. state of New Jersey that is responsible for managing the state's natural resources and addressing issues related to pollution.

The department was created on April 22, 1970, America's first official Earth Day, making it the third state in the country to combine its environmental activities into a single, unified agency, with about 1,400 employees in five divisions, charged with responsibility for environmental protection and conservation efforts.

[4] The land and open space division provides rules and includes information concerning wetlands, coastal, and stream/floodplain encroachment programs.

The goal of this program is to speed up and increase the pace of remediation, thus helping to decrease the threat of future contamination.

[6] A solid and hazardous waste management program is responsible for conducting educational and public relations campaigns on behalf of recycling, although its activities have been reduced since funding cuts in the mid-1990s.