FY24 was another year of change for NERC as we welcomed new staff members and congratulated Mary Anne and Robert on well-earned retirement. The new team has already integrated themselves into the broader recycling community, bringing fresh ideas such as the Emerging Professionals Program. While change is constant, the NERC team maintains our strong foundation of connection between government, nonprofit, and business—both the recycling and waste management industry as well as product producers. This puts the organization in a great position to support future innovations and improvements in the sustainable materials management ecosystem.

During Fiscal Year 2024, NERC continued to evolve with further organizational transitions. Assistant Director, Mary Ann Remolador, who retired from NERC after 29 years of service, provided support and training to our new staff, Marianne Medeiros, Senior Project Manager, and Sophie Leone, Development and Program Manager, passing on invaluable organizational context and perspective about the evolving SMM industry and the role NERC has played throughout the past several decades. Robert Kropp, Office Manager and Bookkeeper, also retired after ten years after bestowing deep organizational knowledge and insight to the new team members.

As a team, NERC provided over 2,000 individuals with education on: reuse, solutions for wasted food, plastic recycling processes, and other topics pertinent to our industry. In addition to hosting nine webinars, NERC held two conferences, in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, bringing together over 250 individuals collectively to discuss critical issues in sustainable materials management. Over 130 state and advisory representatives engaged in critical dialogues through our committee work. These conversations resulted in series of educational presentations from experts, allowing participants to gain a deeper understanding about topics like chemical recycling, specific material markets, and regulatory best practices for policies such as Bottle Bills. The Guide to Increasing Recycling Supply was also developed to identify and explore successful strategies to increase the supply of recycled materials across the recovery value chain.

Collaboration is core to NERC’s composition. As you will observe in this report, cross-state and cross-sector conversations flourished this past year, and new resources were developed from the fresh expertise and valuable contributions of our community members. We continued our partnerships with the Electronics Recycling Coordination Clearinghouse (ERCC), Northeast Waste Management Officials Association (NEWMOA), RecycleCT, and Vermont E-Scrap, and engaged with new organizations to enhance learning for our respective stakeholders. 

As we navigate Fiscal Year 2025, we look forward to creatively collaborating with our members and partners to identify and scale the sustainable materials management innovations and solutions needed to enhance and achieve our local communities’ environmental sustainability goals. 

NERC believes in a world in which waste is minimized and natural resources are conserved. NERC works directly with state, regional, and local agencies, the private sector, trade associations, and others to help address sustainability challenges and achieve environmental goals for the Northeast region of the U.S.

Our Approach

Our goal is to bridge informational gaps across the public and private sectors, develop educational resources, and advance conversations on critical issues across sustainable materials management (SMM).

Four quarterly Northeast MRF Commodity Values Reports were released to map fluctuations in the value of commodities processed by the region’s MRFs: July 2023, November 2023, February 2024, and May 2024. The educational tool is valuable for promoting improved residential recycling and participation and provides useful data for recyclers, MRFs, municipalities, and state agencies.

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NERC published a guide developed with the Supply Side Policy Committee during FY24 to identify and discuss strategies used by different stakeholders to increase the supply of recycled materials. The Guide To Increasing Recycling Supply is a compilation of case studies about real examples of regulatory and non-regulatory strategies used by state and local governments, private industry, and non-profit organizations to increase the quantity and quality of residential recyclable materials - paper, cardboard, glass containers, plastic packaging, aluminum containers, and steel cans.

Fall 2023 Conference: A Resourceful Future for Sustainable Materials Management

NERC's Fall 2023 Conference was held in person on November 1–2 in Providence, Rhode Island, bringing together over 170 attendees from across the U.S. and Canada. The event featured expert speakers on topics such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), Recycling Market Development, Media Literacy, Environmental Justice, and Organics.

Survey respondents highlighted networking as one of the most valuable aspects of the conference, along with discussions on EPR. In particular, the session titled "Implementation Progress of State Packaging EPR Laws: A Status Update of Existing Packaging EPR Laws in Four States" was highly regarded.

Spring 2024 Conference: Building Dynamic Solutions

The Spring 2024 Conference took place from April 31 to May 1 in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, bringing together an intimate group of approximately 120 attendees. This dynamic event featured discussions on Food Management, Supply and Markets, Chemical Recycling, and more.



Notably, 100% of survey respondents found the conference highly informative and engaging. One attendee particularly appreciated the networking opportunities, noting that the event's size allowed them to meet new industry professionals while also dedicating ample time to meaningful conversations.

View our conference records.

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