With a Resource Conservation Challenge grant from EPA New England, NERC worked with two large New England–based businesses, with satellite offices elsewhere in the Northeast, to assist them with further developing their recycling programs. This work included providing direct technical assistance, site visits, staff trainings, recycling program development, troubleshooting, assistance with monitoring progress, and providing outreach and promotion of results. A case study was written on the work and progress with St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center’s (Lewiston, Maine) recycling program and is available here

Partner: St Mary's Regional Center (Maine).

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

Promoting Agricultural Environmental Sustainability in Western Massachusetts - Grant

NERC completed a Lydia B. Stokes Foundation funded project to promote agricultural environmental sustainability in Western Massachusetts. Through the project, NERC provided information on manure management, composting, and compost market development to farmers and the organizations representing these constituencies in Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire Counties, Massachusetts.

NERC held two workshops during the course of the project. The first workshop, Manure Management & Composting Technique Workshop,was held in August at the New England Small Farm Institute (NEFSI), in Belchertown, Massachusetts. Twenty-one people participated in the workshop. The second workshop on Compost Marketing was held in early December at NEFSI. The workshop was attended by 15 farmers from around Western Massachusetts. A tour of Farmer’s Friend Compost in Belchertown was conducted following the workshop.

Workshop attendees received a free “Toolkit of Manure Management, Composting, and Compost Marketing Resources.” Three-hundred (300) CD copies of the Toolkit were made and distributed to agricultural associations, including USDA, Community involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA), New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, and the New England Small Farm Institute. The CD contains hundreds of documents, including several developed by NERC staff.

Special Events Food Waste Diversion in Pennsylvania and Delaware - Grant

Funded by EPA Region 3, this Special Events Composting Project, built upon the experience and knowledge that NERC developed with previous special event waste reduction, recycling, and composting projects. The project focused on food waste diversion and implementing solutions to the challenges that it presents. It included one event in each of two states: Delaware and Pennsylvania. Materials diverted included pre- and post-consumer food, as well as compostable flatware, plates, packaging, and napkins.

Through the project, NERC worked with two events to implement food waste composting — the Philadelphia Folk Festival, an annual four-day event held at Old Pool Farm in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania in August and The University of Delaware, College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment and the Delaware Sea Grant College Program annual Coast Day event held in October.

A special event composting Guidance Document, a unique technical resource for special event planners to implement food waste diversion programs is available, along with a Food Waste Management Plan Template (a Word document) and a Special Event Composting - PowerPoint.

NERC completed the EPA Resource Conservation Challenge grant-funded project on C&D Zero Waste. As part of this project, NERC worked with participants from Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and New York. NERC worked directly with construction site managers to develop zero waste materials plans; provided on-site technical assistance; and developed training tips, implementation tools, fact sheets, and case studies.

The resources developed and posted on NERC’s website for this project include:
  • Asphalt Shingles Manufacturing and Waste Management in the Northeast
  • Building Materials Reuse in Remodeling and New Construction
  • Calculating the Cost Effectiveness of Recycling C&D
  • Hazardous Building Materials Found in Homes and Other Structures
  • Moving towards Zero Waste & Cost Savings – A Roadmap for Contractors and Builders
  • Summary of U.S. States’ and Municipalities’ C&D Recycling Regulations ang Requirement
  • Winning Construction Bids and Gaining Customers

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.

Construction and Demolition Debris Reuse and Recycling in Puerto Rico - Contract

NERC completed an EPA, Region II funded project with the Environmental Finance Center (EFC) at Syracuse University to conduct two Construction and Demolition Debris (C&D) Reuse & Recycling Trainings in Puerto Rico. The trainings were held in San Juan and Ponce. NERC partnered with WasteCap Resource Solutions to present the trainings. The trainings were the first C&D reuse and recycling events to be held in Puerto Rico. Following are the English and Spanish versions of the brochure and flyer developed for the trainings:

English
  • C&D Reuse & Recycling Training in Ponce, PR Brochure
  • C&D Reuse & Recycling Training in Ponce, Puerto Rico Flyer
  • C&D Reuse & Recycling Training in Guaynabo, PR Brochure
  • C&D Reuse & Recycling Training in Guaynabo, PR Flyer

Spanish
  • C&D Reuse & Recycling Training in Ponce, PR Brochure
  • C&D Reuse & Recycling Training in Ponce, Puerto Rico Flyer
  • C&D Reuse & Recycling Training in Guaynabo, PR Brochure
  • C&D Reuse & Recycling Training in Guaynabo, PR Flyer

Partners: WasteCap Resource Solutions and the Environmental Finance Center (EFC) at Syracuse University.

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 York State's Recycling Markets Database - Contract

NERC completed a seven-year contract with New York State’s Empire State Development’s Environmental Services Unit (ESU) to develop and maintain its recycling markets database. This interactive, on-line database helps users locate outlets for materials that can be reused, recycled or composted. The database provides exposure to recycling and reuse businesses and helps end market users of recovered materials in and around New York State access the raw materials they need for production. This database allows the user to search for brokers, processors/recyclers, manufacturers, reuse organizations, compost operations, re-manufacturers, or other recycling-related service providers by material type within specific geographic regions.

XRF Screening of Packaging Components: Inks & Colorants - Grant

This Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse (TPCH) project screened over 130 single-use shopping and mail order bags for the presence of lead and cadmium in inks and colorants and compliance with state toxics in packaging requirements. While only three packaging samples failed the XRF screening, the concentration of lead in these shopping bags was significant at approximately 10,000 ppm or 1 percent by weight. The failing samples were all vibrant, solid-colored plastic bags, two yellow and one red. Overall, the TPCH member states were pleased with the high level of compliance with state toxics in packaging laws. A report on the project 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.

An Assessment of Heavy Metals in Packaging: A Focus on Flexible PVC from Discount Retail Chain Stores - Grant

This report documents the continued investigation by the Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse (TPCH) of heavy metals in packaging, using x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis. The goals of this project were to assess compliance with state toxics in packaging laws by “dollar” and discount retail chain stores; and to identify non-compliant packaging for coordinated action by member states. This project targeted imported flexible polyvinylchloride (PVC) packaging, since two previous TPCH studies showed a propensity for these inexpensive, imported materials to contain restricted metals. A complete report is available on the Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse webiste.

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