The Meadowlands Commission has been installing tide gates along Berry's Creek in Rutherford and East Rutherford to reducing flooding in the surrounding area, including Route 17.
  The tide gates are paying another dividend — they are catching hundreds of cans and plastic bottles before they flow into the creek, and then into the Hackensack River.
   Where does all this litter come from? Thoughtless people throwing bottles and cans out their car windows or tossing them in storm drains.
   The next step in the tide-gate anti-litter effort: Setting up a program to recycle these materials.