NERC Blog

Its baseball season! Capturing recyclable materials from sports fans has become fairly universal; collecting food scraps however, is a definite challenge.

It's spring! Time to think about composting and lawn care!

All industries go through a “commodities cycle.” Prices for everything rise and fall and sometimes these cycles are extreme; for example, the 2000s commodities boom or the “commodities super cycle”. In recent months, Bloomberg reports, almost all commodity markets have taken a “severe beating.” The scrap industry is, of course, a commodities-based business, and is equally vulnerable to these cycles.

Last week, the Rhode Island General Assembly moved forward with the introduction of a new bill that would create an Extended Producer Responsibility program for packaging waste.

The International Year of Soils came to a close on December 4, but that won’t be the end of the work for many soil projects. According to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, “soils are the foundation of food systems” and “are critical to achieving food security and nutrition.”

Thanks to metals, modern society is able to create technologies that are durable, corrosion resistant and powerful. Few of these technologies include cars, skyscrapers, weaponry, machinery and much more. However, there are many different uses of metal that aren't commonly known.

You can imagine my surprise when I learned about a thrift store that takes a different approach—Forest Finds Thrift Shop in the Village of Lyons Falls, New York. Forest Finds sorts all of the clothing received; cleans, fixes, and categorizes the toys by age level; does a great job in displaying all of the available items in an appealing way; supports more than 15 community organizations/efforts; and donates its revenues to support the Forest Presbyterian Church’s Deacons. And what’s really impressive is that they accomplish their work with one part-time store manager and more than 50 volunteers from the area!

Ljubljana is the first capital in Europe to declare a zero waste goal. The city’s residents and businesses successfully divert 61% of its municipal waste through recycling, far higher that the EU average level of source separation at 42%. The city’s goal is to reach 78% diversion by 2025.

NERC’s original state membership was comprised of the ten Northeast states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. This year, Maryland joined NERC as our eleventh state member.

So, three questions come to mind. First, is coffee drinking on the decline? Question two, is the use of single-serve coffee use on the decline? Finally, is the fact that the coffee pods for the Keurig machines are not recyclable having a dent on sales?