News &
Updates

To view our archived Bulletins, click on a date below.

June 2016

NERC’s Advisory Members

Distinguished Benefactors

Benefactors

Sustaining Members

A list of all the logos of our Sustaining Members can be found under Advisory Members

NEW & RENEWING MEMBERSHIPS

Renewing Sustaining Members

New Supporting Members

First 3-Year Bundled Membership

City of Salem, Massachusetts

Renewing Supporting Members

Member Spotlight - TOMRA

NERC NEWS

NEWLY POSTED

STATE NEWS

CONNECTICUT, MASSACHUSETTS & VERMONT

Environmental Merit Award - EPA Region 1

ADVISORY MEMBER NEWS

NEW & RENEWING MEMBERSHIPSMembership is key to NERC's regional and national committment to sustainable materials management. We are delighted to thank the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) and MRM for their continued Sustaining membership in NERC, and to welcome our newest Supporting Members - International Sleep Products Association and the Local Search Association. NERC also recognizes and thanks City of Reading, Pennsylvania, hibu, publisher of Yellowbook and IPL, Inc. as renewing Supporting members. And, a special acknowledgement, thanking the first Advisory Member to take advantage of the new 3-year bundled dues package - City of Salem, Massachusetts.

To see a complete listing of NERC's Members and Supporters, as well as the benefits of membership, visit the NERC Advisory Membership web page.

The broad spectrum of interests represented by NERC's Advisory Members, Individual Supporters, and Board Members and their willingness to participate significantly contribute to the unique and important role that NERC plays in recycling in the region.

For more information, contact Lynn Rubinstein, Executive Director.

Member Spotlight - TOMRA

Using the Power of Business to do Good

TOMRA has a vision — to lead the Resource Revolution by enabling better use of the world’s natural resources within the recycling, food processing and mining industries. We believe that providing smart sensor-based solutions to optimize our resources is key to the Resource Revolution.

Why NERC

TOMRA process

Global resources are under unprecedented pressure – as are the economics of materials recovery. Resource productivity must increase to ensure sustainable development. TOMRA serves NERC’s membership with its technology and systems – and operates with its partners facilities in CT, MA, ME, and VT. NERC affords its stakeholders opportunities to share innovations, best practices and at times work collaboratively towards common interest goals. To TOMRA, this is the Resource Revolution! Watch our video.

Solutions for a Problem

TOMRA got its start in the early 1970s in Asker, Norway, when brothers Petter and Tore Planke provided a local grocer with a machine that could quickly and easily take back empty bottles. Petter and Tore invented the world’s first reverse vending machine (RVM), and founded TOMRA in 1972.

Advances in technology, as well as strategic acquisitions, propelled the company’s growth. With the acquisition of NEROC in 1992, one of the first deposit-return companies in the northeast, TOMRA expanded its services in North America to help optimize the recycling value chain — redemption, transportation and processing – and is a partner in the PET reclaiming company UltrePET.

TOMRA Oregon Coop

Oregon Beverage Recycling Coop’s ‘Bottle-Drop’ Redemption Centers utilize TOMRA technology to serve consumers and bulk redemption accounting.

Sensors are like good eyes

TOMRA further expanded its scope in the 2000’s to become a leading provider of recognition technology serving processors in the recycling, food and mining sectors.

TOMRA machines

Detection is at the core of sorting. Our machines´ sensors found in TOMRA technology are like good eyes; they see more and are thus able to supply more information. As the global pioneer in sensor-based sorting, TOMRA’s sorting technology continues to dynamically drive the development of increasingly better and newer sensors.

Today’s Solutions, Tomorrow’s Answers

TOMRA has some 74,500 reverse vending machines and 4,500 optical sorting units in use in over 60 markets. We are proud of our innovations that allow for growth and long-term economic health of today’s recycling systems – and promise to bring our experience and resources to support future dialog among stakeholders.

For more information about TOMRA, contact Chuck Riegle, TOMRA’s Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs & Compliance, at chuck.riegle@tomra.com, or call (203) 449-8393.

NERC NEWS

NERC Honored by EPA Region 2

We are proud to announce that EPA Region 2 presented NERC with an Environmental EPA Reg 2 Award Pettit, Remolador, Enck Champion Award on May 13, 2016 in New York City. NERC was one of 28 entities (and one of nine non-profit organizations) to be honored. The Award recognizes recipients’ accomplishments in protecting the environment in the Region. Over the past five years, NERC has worked with various communities in New Jersey and New York, as well as the Mohawk Tribe, on reuse, recycling, and organics management projects.

Mary Ann Remolador, NERC’s Assistant Director, accepted the Award on NERC’s behalf. She was accompanied by Peter Pettit, Director, Bureau of Waste Reduction & Recycling, New York Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York representative on NERC’s Board of Directors.

Peter Pettit, Mary Ann Remolador, & Judith Enck, EPA Region 2 Administrator

New Leadership for FY17 - Slate of Officers Elected

With the start of NERC's new fiscal year - July 1 - it will welcome a new leadership team as officers. Robert Isner, Connecticut DEEP will step up as the new President, Bryn Oakleaf, Vermont ANR will be the Vice President, and George MacDonald, Maine DEP will become the Treasurer. Both Robert and George have served as NERC officers in past years, but this is the first time or Bryn.

Robert Isner joins the Executive Committee as the President. Mr. Isner has been with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP) for over 24 years, the past 18 years as the solid waste and hazardous waste program manager. His responsibilities as director of waste engineering and enforcement division include management of enforcement, permitting and compliance assistance activities for the recycling, pesticide, solid waste and hazardous waste programs. Prior to joining CT DEEP, Isner worked for over eight years as a municipal land use planner for two municipalities in Connecticut. He holds a Bachelor of Science from UConn and a Master of Science from Central Connecticut State University.

He is currently on the board of directors for the:

Connecticut Chapter of the Air & Waste Management Association,
Northeast Recycling Council, and
Connecticut Recyclers Coalition.

Bryn Oakleaf is an Environmental Analyst V in Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources – Waste Management and Prevention Division. Her work with ANR is primarily focused on implementing the Universal Recycling Law (Act 148) which was adopted in 2012. Act 148 established phase-in requirements for diverting recycling, leaf and yard debris, and food scraps from the landfill beginning in 2014 and resulting in landfill bans leading up to full implementation by 2020. Oakleaf’s work also includes administering Vermont’s beverage container redemption law. She has been with ANR for five years and has worked with state government for nearly 10 years. She has her Masters in Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law School.

George MacDonald is the Director of the Sustainability Division at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. The keystone of sustainability is encouraging appropriate management of resources, whether natural or man created.

Mr. MacDonald’s career has been one of working on a farm as a youth, with the Federal Government working on environmental conservation, and with agricultural producers to conserve and improve their farm’s soil and water resources.

He has worked in conservation and recycling since 1976 in policy making, solid waste management, landfills, reuse and recycling, to composting programs with communities, businesses, individuals, and residents; to his current role that maintains those activities but expands them further to include climate adaptation issues and concerns.

The positions Mr. MacDonald have held in undertaking these tasks have included federal employment, municipal positions, state occupations, and private sector – both as an employee as well as the owner. He has also been involved, and is one of the founding fathers of NERC.

R2/RIOS Continues Support for State Electronics Challenge

We are delighted to report that R2/RIOS has continued its sponsorship of the State Electronics Challenge. R2/RIOS has been a sponsor of this program for 6 years, and we are extremely grateful for its support.

The State Electronics Challenge is a voluntary program that works with organizations and government entities to improve the sustainability practices for buying, using, and recycling computers and imaging equipment.

NERC Presents at WasteExpo

With more than 13,000 participants anticipated and nearly 600 exhibitors, NERC staff, Athena Lee Bradley, is excited that she gets to present at the upcoming WasteExpo June 6-9 in Las Vegas. Athena is presenting at the Food Recovery Forum a new addition to the Expo’s popular Composting & Organics Recycling Program. She is slated to present on the “Food Waste Reduction and Recovery from Large & Small Venues, Developing the Necessary Infrastructure to Drive Recovery” panel along with Jeremy Kranowitz, Executive Director of Sustainable America and Brad Mohr, Director of Operations, for the Cleveland Browns. Athena will present on “Wasted Food Reduction, Recovery, and Composting at Resorts.” The presentation is based on her work with Jay Peak Resort in Northern Vermont and Bromley Resort in Southwest Vermont to implement food scrap composting.

For more information contact Athena Lee Bradley.

Food Scrap Management Training in New Hampshire

New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services (DES) Solid Waste Facility Operator Certification Program affords a unique professional opportunity for its solid waste facility operators. All operators, from transfer station attendants to landfill managers, are required to be certified. Certification begins with a Basic Solid Waste Facility Operator Training. After that the annual renewal requires continuing professional development hours relevant to the operators’ work at the facility. The Best Management Practices for NH Solid Waste Operators manual is also a highly informative resource for facility operators.

For continuing professional development, DES offers workshops on a range of topics; operators can also attend conferences and even webinars to meet their training requirements. Typically operators must attend at least one training event such as a workshop or conference each year. DES workshops include such topics as bulky waste management, pollution prevention and household hazardous waste, and asbestos.

NERC staff, Athena Lee Bradley, conducted a continuing professional development workshop on Food Scrap Management in early May which was attended by 60 operators. The three-hour workshop provided an overview of the benefits of diverting food scraps from the wastestream and options for collection, primarily looking at residential food scrap collection. The main focus of the workshop was on composting. There is interest at some facilities to add food scraps to their existing leaf and yard trimmings processing efforts.

Sharon Yergeau, DES Supervisor, Solid Waste Compliance Assurance and NERC Board Member Representative, provided an overview of the New Hampshire permit requirements for compost operations accepting food scraps. Athena presented an overview of compost principals, recipe development, and process management.

For more information, contact Athena Lee Bradley.

Warm & Fuzzy Opportunities

Now that we have your attention, if you haven’t supported NERC’s social media outreach, we hope you’ll join us and help to spread the word about NERC’s social media opportunities to your peers and friends.

NERC Blog

NERC’s blog presents articles on a wide range of topics; from recycling markets to wasted food reduction—and lots in between. We offer insights into current happenings, notable projects and lessons learned, ideas worth repeating, and more. Some of our blog articles are instructive, others tend toward opinion pieces, and some are light and humorous. We have guest posts from time to time as well.

Signing up for the NERC blog is easy and best of all, it’s free! Once you’ve signed up, you’ll receive a short email notice (usually on Tuesdays) that a new blog has been posted. Click on the hyperlink in the message and it will take you directly to our most recent blog. Our blogs are not too long, often contain hyperlinks for additional information and of course source material, frequently contain colorful images and photos, and, go well with coffee, tea, and lunch!

Interested in posting your musings…contact Athena Lee Bradley. We love guest blog articles!

NERC Facebook Page

Help us Reach 500 “Likes” on our Facebook page!

Yes, Cristiano Ronaldo with more than 110 million followers is still ahead of Shakira, with just 105 million followers as Facebook's most-“liked “people. And, astoundingly, both are just ahead of Vin Diesel. NERC is up to 400 “likes” (Yeah!!). So, we are in reach of our 500 goal!

NERC on Twitter

You can follow NERC in the Twittersphere @NERecycling. We continue to increase our presence on Twitter and use it to promote NERC events and announcements, as well as help others in the field by spreading their news and postings. We currently have more than 900 Twitter followers… soon to surpass 1,000!

Environmentally Preferable Products Listserv (EPPnet)

Almost 20 years ago, NERC established EPPnet, the Environmentally Preferable Products Listserv. EPPnet is the only national listserv dedicated to the topic of environmentally preferable purchasing. EPPnet enables users to easily and immediately share product specifications, vendors, prices, strategies for achieving green product procurement goals, and federal procurement policies.

Organics Management Northeast Listserv

NERC’s Listserv for advancing organics management in the Northeast is an opportunity to share information about what’s happening with organics management. It’s an open listserv to anyone interested in advancing organics diversion in the Northeast through promotion of the organics management hierarchy (i.e., reduction, recovery, recycling [composting], anaerobic digestion).

NERC Listserv Requirements: NERC listservs are hosted by Yahoo. A Yahoo email account is required of everyone interested in participating in the listserv; log in can also be done through a Facebook account. Once you are a member of the listserv, you can elect to use a non-Yahoo email address.

To join the listservs:

EPPnet

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/EPPnet/info

Organics Management Northeast

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/OrganicsManagementNE/info

Contact Athena Lee Bradley, Projects Manager, for additional information or if you have questions on signing up for either of the listservs. Please note that EPPnet is restricted to government and non-profit members working in environmental preferable purchasing.

Any questions or suggestions about NERC’s social media ventures can be directed to Mary Ann Remolador.

Re-Blog: Textile Reuse Gains Favor as Alternative to Landfill

I recently became a grandfather for the first time. When Nicholas's grandmother arrived at my apartment to deliver him to me for babysitting, she handed me a rag for his drooling and informed me that it had been cut out of an old t-shirt. It wasn't a large rag, probably less than a square foot, but it was but one of many current examples of successful textiles reuse.

At a webinar hosted by NERC earlier this year, it was revealed that according to the most recent statistics, 85% of textiles generated each year—the equivalent of 70 pounds per person—is discarded annually. At an average cost of $45 per ton, that adds up to a costly loss of resources.

Not to mention the environmental impacts: diverting textiles from disposal and into the several forms of reuse available would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save water, and reduce the flow of toxins into the environment. Furthermore, according to the Council for Textile Recovery (CTR), the growth in post-consumer textile waste continues to far exceed diversion rates.

Given the demonstrable benefits of textile reuse, the opportunities for joining in the practice are as numerous as the clothes displayed on a rack in your closet. There are, of course, the time-honored traditions of donating used clothing to your local thrift store, or selling it on a consignment basis to a secondhand store. Also, drop-off boxes for used clothing can be found in many communities now; some are managed by nonprofits, and others by businesses that then resell the clothing, often in far-flung regions of the world such as Africa, for a profit. If you prefer your donations to have a component of social good, then research the operators of your local drop-off boxes to help you determine which aligns with your mission.

In its webinars and elsewhere, NERC has documented the growing number of resources available to those who wish to increase their recycling and reuse of textiles. Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles (SMART), a trade association of the wiping materials, used clothing, and fiber industries, participated in NERC’s textile webinar. SMART's presentation pointed out several of the legislative initiatives the association has sponsored, including a code of conduct for those aforementioned clothing collection bin operators.

SMART has also collaborated with NERC member states, such as Massachusetts' Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), in a campaign aimed at increasing textile recovery. A Textile Summit hosted by Mass DEP in October, 2015, focused on increasing textile recovery rates and the need for collaboration among competing bin operation companies and organizations.

MassDEP also participated on NERC’s webinar, and alerted participants to the International Reuse Conference and Expo, scheduled for October, 2016 in Boston. Among the features of the conference will be a ReFashion Show, which will highlight “fun and sustainable fashion, from off-the-rack thrift finds to upcycled couture designs.”

In New York, SMART collaborated with CTR and NERC Advisory Member New York State Association for Reduction, Reuse and Recycling (NYSAR3) in the Re-Clothe New York campaign, which since its launch in 2014 has collected over one million pounds of textiles. The campaign has been so successful that in 2015 it received an Environmental Champion Award from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The success of the Re-Clothe New York campaign contributed also to the passage by the State Legislature in December, 2015, of a bill imposing disclosure requirements of bin operators, including whether they are non- or for-profit.

NERC State Member Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC) also updated webinar participants on its efforts to increase textile recovery and reuse in the state. Listing the eight primary textile recyclers in Rhode Island, RIRRC's presentation included a textile recycling event held last August at the Warwick Mall. Collection bins from all eight recyclers were prominently displayed, and participants were eligible for prizes donated by the recyclers. In this era of budget uncertainty at the state level, it is not surprising to learn that government allocations to textile recycling with growing awareness of the benefits of the practice. But, as NERC's webinars and workshops have consistently pointed out, creating and publicizing textile recycling campaigns need not incur significant expense, particularly at the community level.

Available low-cost options include:

Announcements in local newspapers and on local television and radio stations.
Outreach to schools, churches, nonprofit organizations, and civic groups.
Facebook and Twitter announcements.
Adding the information to recycling lists and announcements.

Of course, repurposing an old t-shirt into a baby rag is a great example of low-cost textile recovery. And, as my exceptional grandson quickly masters the art of not drooling as much, a quick turn in the washing machine repurposes the rag into a wiping cloth.

By Robert Kropp

Robert Kropp is NERC’s bookkeeper and office manager. He is also a Vermont-based freelance journalist whose writings on sustainability and corporate responsibility can be read at www.SocialFunds.com. Images courtesy of RIRRC and NYSAR3.
NEWLY POSTED

NERC's Bylaws Revised, Expanding Opportunities for Advisory Member Involvement

The NERC Board of Directors has completed a significant revision of NERC's bylaws; an effort that began almost a year ago. Among the changes are expanded opportunities for Advisory Members to be engaged in the organization. The updated bylaws are available online.

Minutes from NERC Board of Directors Meeting, April 2016

Minutes from the most recent NERC Board of Directors meeting are now available on the NERC website.

STATE NEWS

CONNECTICUT, MASSACHUSETTS & VERMONT

EPA Region 1 Environmental Merit Award

Staff from three of NERC's members were recently recognized by EPA Region 1 as Environmental Merit Award winners for their leadership in policies to recover food and manage food scraps and waste:

Cathy Jamieson, Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation
John Fischer, Massaschusetts Department of Environmental Protection
Chris Nelson - Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

In 2014, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut passed laws limiting food waste sent to landfills. Each law restricts the amount of waste coming from businesses, grocery stores, hospitality, colleges, universities, hospitals and food processors. The first goal of all three states is to increase awareness of food waste and to increase the amount of food being recycled or composted. The bans are now one year in, and these three New England states have reduced food going to landfills. The Vermont Food Bank has seen donations of surplus food increase 24 %. Massachusetts has seen a significant jump in technical assistance requests for diversion. Recently Rhode Island enacted an organics ban modeled after these three states.

A map done by all three states showing food waste became a model for a national EPA map on wasted food. In addition, Massachusetts set up a model technical assistance program dedicated to working with businesses on food recovery and management. New England and its creative state policies, led by Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont, clearly is a leader in food recovery.

EPA’s Environmental Merit Award is an annual award that recognizes outstanding environmental advocates who have made significant contributions toward preserving and protecting our natural resources.

ADVISORY MEMBER NEWsHousehold Hazardous Waste Collection Results - Centre County, Pennsylvania

Folks from 1,160 households took advantage of Centre County’s Household Hazardous Waste Collection Program this weekend at the Centre County Recycling & Refuse Authority.

Approximately 79,000 pounds of material was collected during the 2-day event. In all, 1,081 vehicles brought hazardous chemicals from 1160 households. Residents from 33 of the county’s 35 municipalities participated. There were several dozen people from nine surrounding counties and as far away as Bradford County that came to participate.

In addition to the pesticides and other household hazardous waste, over one mile of linear feet of fluorescent tubes was accepted for recycling.

In addition to CCRRA employees, volunteers from Penn State Environmental Health and Safety were on-site to assist in checking vehicles.

The event was co-sponsored by Centre County Recycling & Refuse Authority, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. MXI of Virginia was the successful contractor.

“Centre County residents showed up in force and really showed their environmental caring.” said Joanne Shafer, Centre County’s Deputy Executive Director/Recycling Coordinator. “The amount of participants was up considerably; I think that folks are really more aware of their environment and they want to protect the beauty of our county. Clean air and water are key to the economy of our area.” “Many county residents were aware of their carbon footprint and combined trips and helped neighbors”

Collection and disposal costs of all 79,000 pounds will be split between the Household Hazardous Waste Fund, DEP & CHEMSWEEP. We even collected over 1,000 pounds of cardboard during the event.

If you missed this collection, look for information next spring. The Centre County Recycling & Refuse Authority will be holding another Household Hazardous Waste Collection Event in 2017.

2016 APR Plastics Recycling Web Seminar Education Series

The APR Design® Guide for Plastics Recyclability: A Guided Tour through this Comprehensive Product Design Reference Tool
Tuesday, June 28th at 1:00 pm EST

APR works with Consumer Brand companies to encourage the expanded us of PCR in their products. This partnership is a key component of a collaborative approach to help companies achieve their sustainability goals and commitments. The APR Design® Guide for Plastics Recyclability was created to provide a reference for packaging engineers and designers to utilize when creating a new product or package. Our goal is to ensure a package is recyclable when it is introduced into the marketplace, rather than determining it is an impediment to recycling after it enters the waste stream. The APR Design® Guide has proven to be one of the most comprehensive product design reference sources available. This webinar will provide a step by step guide through the extensive resources provided on the APR website.

Plastics Recycling Works: Facts and Figures to Support a Thriving Industry
Tuesday, August 9th at 1:00 pm EST

Plastics recycling in 2016 is a strong, growing, vibrant, and economically sustainable industry. Demand for recycled plastic material for reuse in manufacturing has never been stronger. The volume of plastic containers recycled annually continues to grow at rates greater than gross domestic product. Consumer brand commitment, in concert with innovation in packaging design and recycling technology, are making a wider variety of products available for recycling. This webinar will provide an overview of the environmental benefits of recycling, market trends, brand owner sustainability goals, as well as future areas of growth in the plastics recycling industry.

Recycling Rigid Plastics Beyond Bottles: Resources to Support MRFs and Municipalities
Tuesday, September 6th at 1:00 pm EST

The Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR), works to increase the amount of plastic recycled, and to strengthen the economic viability of plastics recycling. An annual survey of the largest communities in each of the fifty US states and Washington, DC indicates that the number of communities collecting #1-7 containers more than doubled from 2009 to 2014. Although this is great news, many cities have still not followed this trend. Recycling rigid plastics beyond PET and HDPE bottles presents certain challenges, but many North American reclaimers are interested in buying non-bottle rigid plastic material. Polypropylene is the largest resin component of non-bottle containers, which has a high market demand. This webinar will provide an overview of the resources, developed by the APR, for MRFs and Municipalities to support the expansion of plastics collected.

2015 PET Container Recycling Rate Report Overview
Tuesday, October 18th at 1:00 pm EST

The Report on Postconsumer PET Container Recycling Activity in 2015 , a collaborative effort of APR and The National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), provides a detailed overview of the recycling of PET bottles and jars in the United States during 2015, as well as a general summary of the recycling of PET thermoforms. This webinar will serve as an Executive Summary, featuring data and analyses from the report. The full report will be available on the APR website once publicly released.

2015 National Postconsumer Plastics Bottle Recycling Rate Report Overview
Monday, November 7th at 1:00 pm EST

The 2015 National Postconsumer Plastics Bottle Recycling Rate Report, a collaborative effort of APR and The American Chemistry Council (ACC), quantifies the amount of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) bottles collected for recycling, as well as the rate of recycling of those bottles. This study also includes postconsumer recycling values and comments for polyethylene terephthalate (PET).. This webinar will serve as an Executive Summary, featuring data and analyses from the report. The full report will be available on the APR website once publicly released.

ISRI Names Winners of Annual Youth Video & Poster Contest

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) and JASON Learning gave students the opportunity to showcase their artistic talent and utilize their innovative minds in a nationwide 2015-2015 Youth Video & Poster Contest.

The annual Youth Video & Poster Contest is an aspect of a movement in the industry to generate students’ interest and broaden their knowledge in the scrap recycling industry, and inspire children to pursue careers in or related to recycling. The contest acts as a learning process that allows students to use the information they use in their science classes and link it to the real world. It also allows students to be active in spreading awareness about various issues in the recycling industry.

This year’s theme was “Recycling in Bigger than the Bin.” Eligible students were asked to think outside of the bin and use their creativity to understand and inform the public how items other than newspapers, aluminum cans, and plastic bottles commonly found in the blue bins are recycling. The item that the students could choose to explore had to be from the following list of commodities: steel; plastic; glass; nonferrous metals; tires/rubber; textiles; and paper. The challenge was to discover how an item is recycled and depict the findings through an intriguing concept, either through a video or poster.

The winners for the 2015-2016 Youth Video & Poster Contest are Eleanor Small and Megan Onello, presented with the grand prize in the video category (watch video), and Angelica Devers, the winner of the grand prize in the poster category (view poster). Small and Onello are seventh graders from Hampstead, NH who directed and created a video that explains the best commodities to use when creating a recycled playground, as well as the benefits of using eco-friendly commodities. Devers is an eighth grader from Kapolei, HI who designed a poster exhibiting the process of recycling a television.

The winners were recognized at ISRI’s Annual Convention & Exposition that was held at the beginning of April in Las Vegas.

Bodner, Moss Recognized with ISRI’s Lifetime Achievement Award

The Institute of the Scrap Recycling Industries celebrated Emanuel (Manny) Bodner of Bodner Metal & Iron Corporation, and Stanton Moss, founder of Stanton A. Moss Incorporated, by presenting them with the Lifetime Achievement Award at ISRI’s annual convention and exposition in Las Vegas.

Manny Bodner joined his family company, Bodner Metal & Iron Corporation, after graduating from The University of Texas at Austin in 1969. Working alongside his father, Manny and his sister Karen have seen the company evolve from a single yard into one of the leading processors, brokers, and merchants of industrial and consumer scrap metals in the region. In 1995, he was named president. Last month Manny retired as president of Bodner Metal & Iron, beginning a new chapter in his life. Bodner has served in a number of leadership roles for ISRI at both the national and chapter levels. Past positions include: Convention Chair of ISRI’s Gulf Coast Chapter; Vice-Chair of the Chapter Presidents Committee; President of the Recycling Research Foundation; and more. He is currently the Chair of the Design for Recycling Task Force.

Stanton Moss has been a fixture in the scrap recycling industry for almost 50 years. He commenced his career in the industry at his father-in-law’s company, George Sall Metals, fresh out of attending college at Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. Moss excelled in his work, climbing the ranks of the company and being promoted to general manager in 1971. Once the company became liquidated in 1973, Moss turned his attention to a company of his own, founding Stanton A. Moss In., a nonferrous metal brokerage company specializing in aluminum, in 1974. Stanton Moss is involved in multiple trade associations, dedicating both his work and his free time to the improvement and success of the industry. He served on the board of the National Association of Recycling Industries, an ISRI predecessor. He has also served on ISRI’s National Board of Directors, chaired the Non-Ferrous Division, served two terms as National Convention Chair, and frequently moderated at Roundtable and Spotlight programs. Moss was originally recognized for his dedication and service to the industry in 2001 after receiving the Phoenix Award by the ISRI Mid-Atlantic Chapter.

Mark Withrow Presented with ISRI’s Safe Driver of the Year Award

Mark Withrow of Cohen Recycling in Middletown, Ohio was presented with the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) Safe Driver of the Year Award for completing 33 verifiable years of safe driving without a single preventable accident. During his career, Mr. Withrow has had the distinction of being the company’s senior driver who has embraced the opportunity to mentor the company’s younger and ever expanding inexperienced driving force. The award, now in its fourth year, recognizes outstanding drivers who have driven a commercial vehicle for at least 20 years without incurring a preventable accident.

The Safe Driver of the Year Award is based on the following mandatory criteria:

Nominations may be submitted only by ISRI members in good standing.
Nominees must be full-time employees whose primary responsibility is to operate a commercial motor vehicle.
Nominees must be current employees of the nominating member company, and must be employed for at least 1 year (12 consecutive months).
Nominations must be made by someone familiar with the nominee’s work history, such as manager, safety director, etc.
No more than 3 drivers may be nominated from the same member company.
Nominees must meet the minimum requirement of 10 years of verifiable employment as a commercial motor vehicle technician.

Other criteria taken into account are the driver’s contribution to highway safety (driver trainer), letters of appreciation, deeds of heroism on or off the job, and civic and fraternal organizations.

When he is not at work, Mark is spending time with his wife of 31 years, Cherye, and their daughter Jennifer, who is a student at Miami University in Ohio. Mark’s Hobbies includes collecting antique tractors with his father, reading and gardening.

The award was presented to Mr. Withrow at ISRI’s 2016 Convention in Las Vegas. In addition to travel to and lodging at the Convention, Mark received a trophy, personalized certificate, ISRI Safe Driver leather jacket, congratulatory letter, and a $500 personal check.

The second-place winner was Dan Storms of LP Padnos in Holland, MI, and the third-place went to Sean Elliott of Schnitzer Northeast, in Concord, NH.