NERC assessed the effectiveness of municipal business recycling programs in Massachusetts. The project included conducting an in-depth survey of each town to find out the details of existing municipal business recycling programs. The information was organized in a ready-to use database, posted on MA DEP's website and incorporated into the service provider locator on the Earth 911 website.

The key NERC staff for this project was Mary Ann Remolador. For more information about NERC's current projects, contact Mariane Medeiros, Senior Project Manager.

New England Strategic Outreach and Education Plan for Reuse and Waste Prevention: Developing Linkages between Materials Exchanges, Schools & Municipal Governments

Funded by EPA and USDA, this project promoted reuse and waste prevention to New England school and municipal purchasing agents by developing an understanding of the economic and environmental benefits of using Materials Exchanges, as well as state surplus property programs. As a result of the project, NERC developed a Directory of Surplus Property Programs in New England.

See the Final Reports for details:
1. Final Report to EPA
2. Final Report to USDA

The key NERC staff for this project was Mary Ann Remolador. For more information about NERC's current projects, contact Mariane Medeiros, Senior Project Manager.

Newspaper Publishers’ Purchasing Commitments - Contract

In 1998 NERC brought together state recycling officials, representatives of the newsprint industry and newspaper publishers to spur investment in the facilities needed to make the recycling of millions of tons of old newspapers generated in the region an economic and technical reality. Through a combination of voluntary agreements and legislative mandates initiated by individual states and coordinated by NERC, a significant majority of newsprint publishers in the Northeast were expected to increase purchases of recycled fiber from current levels of about 20 percent to 40–50 percent by the year 2000. Substantial investment has been made by the newsprint industry to accommodate this new demand, resulting in significant growth in demand for old newspapers (ONP) and old magazines (OMG) generated in the Northeast. In 1995, NERC co-sponsored the Old Newspaper and Old Magazine Supply Study to document the availability of feedstock to fuel new capacity for producing recycled-content newsprint. The study was co-sponsored by the Newspaper Association of America, the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.



NERC issued an annual report assessing the status of the laws and agreements. In 1997 NERC entered into a dialogue with publishers in the region to explore opportunities for updating the agreements, and with partial funding from the U.S. EPA established the Northeast Newspaper Recycling Task Force, made up of NERC members and some of the region's large publishers. Members of the Task Force funded a study of recycled newsprint manufacturing capacity, which informed the Task Force's Final Report and recommendations, published in January, 1999.

NERC worked on a USDA Rural Utilities Service-funded project to create a directory of hazardous waste collection and recycling programs for businesses in each, New Hampshire and Vermont. These Guides are a quick reference for businesses to better understand the options available to them for disposing of their hazardous waste and the tools that they will need to get them started. In addition to a list of the towns that include businesses in their hazardous waste collections, the Guides include the information businesses when preparing to use a municipal hazardous waste collection programs.

The Guides were updated in 2006 and are available on NERC's website at:

The NH Guide
The VT Guide

The key NERC staff for this project was Mary Ann Remolador. For more information about NERC's current projects, contact Mariane Medeiros, Senior Project Manager.

Hazardous Waste Small Business Pilot Collections - Grant

This project included working with coordinators of a municipal hazardous waste collection program in Vermont and New Hampshire and providing assistance to expand their outreach and focus on the programs to include businesses. See the Final Report, the New Hampshire Flyer and the Vermont Flyer for details.

The key NERC staff for this project was Mary Ann Remolador. For more information about NERC's current projects, contact Mariane Medeiros, Senior Project Manager.