Solid Waste Management Research and Development Fund; creation

25. a. There is hereby created in the Department of Environmental Protection a special fund which shall be known as the Solid Waste Management Research and Development Fund. There shall be included in the fund all moneys appropriated by the Legislature for inclusion therein. The commissioner may invest and reinvest any moneys in the fund, or any portion thereof, in legal obligations, of this State or any political subdivision thereof or the United States. Any income or interest on, or increment to, moneys so invested or reinvested shall be included in the fund. b. Upon the approval by the commissioner of any application for a State grant pursuant to this amendatory and supplementary act, the commissioner shall pay over the moneys in the fund, or any portion thereof, to the contracting person in accordance with commitments made and contracts entered into pursuant to this amendatory and supplementary act. c. Nothing herein shall be construed as requiring the commissioner to approve any application for any State grant or to expend the moneys in the aforesaid Solid Waste Management Research and Development Fund solely for the purposes of making such State grants, and the commissioner is hereby authorized and empowered, in his discretion, to allocate the moneys in the fund, or any portion thereof, for any experimentation with, or demonstration of, new methods and techniques for the collection, disposal and utilization of solid waste, including the acquisition of real property and the purchase of any facility, site, laboratory, equipment or machinery as authorized pursuant to section 6 of P.L.1970, c.39 (C.13:1E-6).