NERC completed an EPA Resource Conservation Challenge (RCC) — funded grant to conduct a 28-month demonstration project on source reduction, food rescue and diversion, recycling and pollution prevention at Vermont hotels. NERC’s partners for this project were the Green Hotels in the Green Mountain program, the Vermont Food Bank, and the Vermont Convention Bureau.

The participant hotels in this project included: the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in Burlington, Vermont; and the Comfort Inn & Suites in Waterbury, Vermont. NERC and the Green Hotels in the Green Mountain State program provided the hotels with direct technical assistance and staff training on how to be environmental stewards, save money, and how the hotel could become a member of the Green Hotels Program.

The project included the completion of four new resources for working on waste management issues with hotels. These include:

• Two case studies on the hotels that NERC provided direct technical assistance to for the EPA-funded Vermont Green Hotels project. The case studies describe each hotel’s recycling, composting, and green purchasing efforts — Comfort Inn & Suites Case Study and the Sheraton Hotel & Conference Center Case Study.
• The Guide to Greening Hotels through Waste Management & Green Purchasing provides a step-by-step approach to materials reduction, reuse, recycling, composting, and green purchasing at hotels. The strategies outlined in this document support the same eligibility requirements for waste management and green purchasing as the green hotel programs in the Northeast states.
• The Environmental Impacts of Recycling Fact Sheet that provides greenhouse gas reductions and energy savings from recycling materials commonly generated at hotels.

Partners: Comfort Inn & Suites (St. Johnsbury, Vermont) and Sheraton Hotel & Conference Center (Burlington, Vermont).

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.

State Electronics Challenge – EPA Region 8 - Grant

This project introduced and supported the State Electronics Challenge (SEC) in EPA Region 8. During the two year project, 13 organizations joined as Partners from that Region. For details, see the Partner list at http://stateelectronicschallenge.net/epa_regions.html#eight. 

The SEC is a voluntary program that non-federal government entities, such as tribe, state agencies, municipal and county government, colleges and universities, and public schools, join as Partners. Partners commit to take action to reduce the environmental footprint of their office equipment, and in return receive free one-on-one technical assistance, web-based resources, webinar opportunities, and reporting and measurement tools to spur innovative pollution prevention approaches to managing their computer assets.

Specifically, the SEC promotes environmentally preferable purchasing of office equipment using the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT®) environmental performance standard, improved operations and maintenance of office equipment (e.g., energy conservation through power management, paper use reduction), reuse and donation programs, and environmentally responsible recycling of office equipment at the end-of-life.

Environmental outcomes, including reductions in greenhouse gases, energy use, municipal solid wastes, toxic materials such as lead and mercury, hazardous waste, and cost savings are calculated and reported using the EPA-supported Electronics Environmental Benefits Calculator (EEBC). 

Vermont Business Materials Exchange - Contract

NERC served as the Vermont Business Materials Exchange (VBMX) administrator from 2009-2011 for the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. The Exchange, developed in 1993, was intended to reduce the amount of materials disposed by providing a website for the exchange of surplus and unwanted items for businesses, towns, and non-profit organizations.

During the three years that NERC was responsible for the daily management of VBMX, the Exchange membership more than doubled (currently 1,000 members), and there were more than 100 exchanges worth more than $13,000, and totaling more than 12 tons of material diverted from disposal.

Partners: Vermont Agency of Natural Resources and iWasteNot Services.

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.

Successful implementation of waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting in schools brings many rewards, including potential cost savings for tight school budgets. NERC was awarded a United States Department of Agriculture Rural Utility Services Solid Waste Management Grant in 2009 to provide direct technical assistance and training in waste reduction, recycling, and composting to rural schools in Connecticut, New York, and Delaware. Eight schools participated in NERC’s Waste Reduction and Recycling (WR&R) project over the course of two years. Numerous resources were developed for the project, including:

Action Tip Sheets

• Waste Assessments & Waste Audits
• Waste Audit Sheets
• School Waste Assessment Form
• School Reuse Tips
• Paper Use Reduction in Schools
• School Cafeteria Waste Reduction
• Setting Up a Rural School Recycling Program
• Composting School Food Scraps & Soiled Paper
• Fundraising with Recycling
• Rural School Case Studies in Waste Reduction, Reuse, Recycling, & Composting
• Basic School Composting Recipe
• School Web Resources

Presentations that can be given in Schools and Classrooms

Rural School Recycling Success

Composting at School

“Small Town/Rural School Waste Reduction & Recycling” Webinar

Sustainable Recycling for Schools

Implementing a Successful Green School Program

"School Composting Options” Webinar

Manchester Essex (Massachusetts) Regional School District Composting

Mansfield Middle School (Connecticut) Composting

Case Studies

Academy of the Holy Family, Connecticut

Eldred School District, New York

Liberty School District, New York

Article

Composting in the Classroom, an article by Athena Bradley in Resource Recycling magazine 

Laboratory Round Robin Test Project: Assessing Performance in Measuring Toxics in Packaging - Grant

State toxics in packaging laws restrict the total concentration of four metals – lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium – in packaging. The California Department of Toxics Substances Control (DTSC) contracted with NERC, the administrator of the Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse (TPCH), to perform a round-robin study to evaluate the performance of testing laboratories in determining compliance with toxics in packaging statutes. The study specifically focused on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) matrices. 

For the past five years, TPCH has screened packaging for compliance with state toxics in packaging laws using x-ray fluorescent (XRF) analysis. When TPCH compared XRF screening results obtained for packaging samples with laboratory analysis, TPCH learned that the results obtained from laboratory analysis did not necessarily correlate with XRF screening results. The underlying cause of the discrepancy between XRF and laboratory analysis appeared to be the selection of appropriate dissolution methods for preparing packaging samples for analysis.  Simply put, if the sample is not completely digested, the restricted metals, if present, are not sufficiently liberated from the plastic and cannot be completely measured by the laboratory analytical equipment, since analytical instruments, such as ICP, measure the concentration of substances in the solution.

This TPCH report summarizes the performance of laboratories in determining compliance with the 100 ppm limit of toxics in packaging requirements. Based on the findings, the report presents recommendations for regulated entities (such as packaging suppliers, manufacturers and distributors of packaged products) and test laboratories to ensure that testing measures total concentration of restricted metals in the sample. A complete report is available on the Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse website.

For more information on state toxics in packaging laws, visit the Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse website. 

National Mandatory Recycling & Disposal Bans document - Contract

NERC was hired by ReCommunity to develop a consolidated document that chronicled all of the mandatory recycling and disposal bans in the United States; reported on a state-by-state basis.