NERC Blog

Today's guest blog comes courtesy of the Environmental Paper Network. The original post can be found here.

Two years ago now, though it seems much longer than that, I traveled from the USA to Germany for a sustainable packaging conference organized by denkhausbremen and Environmental Paper Network – International. Over 60 people joined me, mostly from across Europe and the UK and also from China and Canada. We came together in a brightly-lit room in Bremen. On the first day there were advocates, and business people, government representatives, and one intrepid interpreter. The conference had a paper focus but the presentations and discussions moved fluidly between the impacts of packaging made of paper, plastic, and all kinds of materials. By the end of a session that was exclusively for NGO advocates on the second day, there was strong agreement that we needed to rapidly address…

Today's guest blog comes courtesy of Secretary Ben Grumbles of NERC State Member Maryland Department of the Environment. The original post can be found here.

I will always remember February 19, 2021, as a day for climate hope, globally and locally. Not only was it the day the United States re-entered the historic Paris Climate Accord but also the day the Maryland Department of the Environment submitted its final 2030 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act Plan to Governor Larry Hogan and the Maryland General Assembly.

This bold, ambitious 279-page plan is the most detailed, number-crunched, and up-to-date of its kind of any state in the nation. Our climate team led a robust and inclusive collaboration over the last three years among MDE, other Hogan Administration departments and agencies, the independent Maryland…

Today's guest blog is courtesy of Suz Okie, Associate Analyst of the circular economy at GreenBiz.

What's all the buzz about?

I’m taking the reins from Lauren this week to highlight a topic I’ve been keeping my eye on: bio-based materials. 

Creating human-made materials from living or biological sources is by no means a new development. In the library of human-made stuff, we’ve been sourcing lumber from trees or textiles from cotton for thousands of years. Yet newly invented bio-based materials are garnering significant hype as of late. 

And why not? From electronic displays made from fish scales to sanitary products made from banana fibers, the inspired remix of biological materials into unexpected products can sound like the work of science fiction. And by displacing legacy materials (often with synthetic or fossil fuel origins) these innovations…

This week's guest blog is courtesy of NERC Advisory Member AMP Robotics.

By Maria Van Dyke, Production Team Lead

In January 2019, my husband, Ben, started a job as a robot operations engineer at a relatively new company called AMP Robotics in Louisville, Colorado, about 25 miles from our home in the Denver metro area. AMP makes robotics systems enabled by artificial intelligence to automate the identification and sorting of recyclable materials. The company was growing quickly to meet demand, and Ben was part of a team responsible for assembling units to get them ready to ship to customers. The quick pace of things didn’t bother him; he enjoyed the work. Our son, Luke, and I would drive up to meet him when he was able to break for dinner; then he’d put in a few more hours before finishing for the day. I was a cake decorator at a local Target bakery at the time, and my early-morning shifts complemented his long days; I could be around to handle…

This guest blog is provided by Dave Heglas, senior director of supply chain excellence for Trex Company.

Got plastic waste? Trex Company would love to put it to good use. Trex manufactures eco-friendly, wood-alternative decking using a proprietary mix of reclaimed polyethylene plastic film and scrap hardwood, and we are looking to help retailers, grocery stores and distribution centers responsibly dispose of their plastic waste through our award-winning recycling initiative known as NexTrex^®.

Through the NexTrex program, Trex makes it easy for retailers and distributors to repurpose the plastic waste they accumulate as part of their daily operations. Once enough material is collected, it is sent to nearby distribution centers where it is sorted, condensed and shipped to  manufacturing facilities in Virginia and Nevada, to be used in the making of Trex’s world-famous…

Today’s blog is the first in a two-part series focusing on solutions to plastic waste. The first part focuses on a recent report from Carbon Tracker, a “think tank that carries out in-depth analysis on the impact of the energy transition on capital markets and the potential investment in high-cost, carbon-intensive fossil fuels.”

During the pandemic summer of 2020, Pew Charitable Trusts published an influential study entitled Breaking the Plastic Wave, which, according to the nongovernmental organization (NGO), “shows that we can cut annual flows of plastic into the ocean by about 80% in the next 20 years by applying existing solutions and technologies.” Of especial note for the recycling community is the inclusion of recycling among the technologies already available:

• Expand reuse and refillable options to decrease reliance on new plastic production;
• Design recycling-friendly…

NERC Board Member Chaz Miller writes on what extended producer responsibility laws could look like in the United States. The original article can be found here.

“Make the manufacturers pay” has become a popular solution for recycling’s problems. It seems simple after all, that if producers pay for recycling instead of local governments, taxpayer money can be used on other services.  Moreover, by “internalizing” the recycling cost, manufacturers will find ways to make their packaging and products more easily recyclable.  Sounds great doesn’t it?

These product stewardship laws, also known as “EPR” for “extended producer responsibility”, are somewhat common in the United States.Thirty-three states have laws covering products that are hard to recycle or contain hazardous constituents. They include, for instance, electronics, paint, carpets, mattresses and mercury-containing thermostats. The programs have been somewhat successful in increasing recycling of those products but have done little to make them more easily recyclable or otherwise…

Today's guest blog is authored by Lauren Phipps of GreenBiz. The original post can be found here.

Campus Recyclers See Challenges & Opportunities from COVID-19

A partnership of organizations have published the preliminary results of survey into the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education waste reduction efforts. Recycling and sustainability managers from over 130 schools across the US and Canada have participated in the 15-question survey covering topics such as indoor collection programs, budget impacts and reusable to-go food container programs. Among the results, COVID is causing:

• Many schools to convert deskside waste to self-service collections. Roughly 20% have or are actively considering the shift.
• 30% of schools to temporarily suspend reusable to-go food container programs, even as 8% are working to introduce or expand such programs.
• 29% of schools to cut recycling staff positions.

Click to view highlights of the preliminary results

Click…

Today's guest blog comes courtesy of Ensia. The original post can be found here.

Single-use items — which have long been the target of ire from environmentalists — are having a moment in the era of Covid-19. From disposable cups and take-out packaging to gloves and masks, safety concerns are pushing consumers and institutions in the direction of disposables.