June 2020
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
New Sustaining Member
Renewing Sustaining Member
Renewing Supporting Member
Member Spotlight - Plastics Industry Association
NERC News
- NERC’s Fall Conference – Rebooting Recycling – October 20 - 21
- Accepting Applications for the 2020 Environmental Sustainability Leadership Award
- Webinar July 22 - Learn about the Government Recycling Demand Champion Program
Newly Posted
- Latest MRF Blended Value Report Published - Region Expanded
- Minutes, NERC Board of Directors Meeting April 2020
State Updates
CONNECTICUT
MASSACHUSETTS
- MassDEP COVID 19 Solid Waste and Recycling Guidance
- Recycle Smart MA Launched a Recycling Quiz for Earth Month
Advisory Members News
New & Renewing Memberships
Membership is key to NERC's regional and national commitment to sustainable materials management. We would like to thank welcome our newest Sustaining Member - Plastics Industry Association, as well as renewing Sustaining Member - Keurig Dr. Pepper, and Supporting Member - National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER).
Thank you to all our Advisory Members. 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.
Member Spotlight - Plastics Industry Association
NERC’s newest Sustaining Advisory Member, the Plastics Industry Association 
(PLASTICS), is as its name implies a nonprofit trade association advocating for the plastics industry. It’s no secret that these are trying and possibly transformative times for the industry and its advocates, as well as for critics who call for more effective plastics recycling and curbs on the use of such single-use plastics as bags and straws. As the association’s tagline—Better Industry, Better World—suggests, the Plastics Industry Association seeks to chart a course that prioritizes the concerns of the industry it represents while accounting for society’s demands for waste minimization.
A recent blog post from April on the association’s website argues, “Creating prohibitions on plastics just doesn’t make sense. Finding a solution to people’s wanton disregard for proper disposal of trash should be the goal. That, coupled with aggressive collection and recycling practices can be one of the keys to rectifying the situation.”
PLASTICS’ Sustainability Statement emphasizes the necessity for the plastics industry to embrace effective sustainability measures. “Sustainable plastic manufacturing conducts business in a way that seeks to drive value creation for society, the environment, and the industry,” it states. “It also strives for improvement to reduce impacts on natural resources, minimizing waste generation, and shifting toward renewable energy options; all of which reduces greenhouse gas impacts.”
The Statement details some of the ways in which PLASTICS can help the industry become more sustainable:
- Promoting the use of recycled plastics in new products.
- Educating companies about how to recycle more and make their products easier for consumers to recycle.
- Demonstrating viable business models for collecting and recycling different types of plastic materials from locations like offices, hospitals and other areas.
- Incentivizing companies to eliminate waste and increase recycling.
- Measuring the amount of wasted recyclable plastic material.
PLASTICS partners with other industry groups and leading companies throughout the plastics supply chain to continually improve the performance and recovery of plastic products and packaging. In Berks County, Pennsylvania, PLASTICS is supporting the Material Recovery for the Future research program that is on track to produce 6,000,000 pounds of recycled flexible plastic packaging from the consumer waste stream – extending the useful life of this very innovative technology. The Association recently completed a secondary sorting demonstration project in Portland, Oregon that demonstrated an estimated 50,000 tons per year of additional recyclable material could be recovered in the region through the utilization of additional mechanical sorting equipment. They also run a sustainability initiative, the Zero Net Waste (ZNW) program, which equips its participants with tools to divert up to 90% of their total waste away from the landfill, engage employees in environmental efforts, avoid landfill costs and generate revenue by recycling.
No one who reads the news would deny that a sustainable plastics industry is key to a circular economy and the environmental benefits that such a development provides. It is in the spirit of bringing the voices of all stakeholders to the table that NERC welcomes the Plastics Industry Association as its newest Sustaining Advisory Member.NERC News
NERC’s Fall Conference – Rebooting Recycling – October 20 - 21
Rebooting Recycling, the theme for NERC’s Fall Conference, has taken on new meaning as we learn how to live, work, and recycle with the COVID-19 virus. The Conference agenda will offer insightful sessions about recycling end-markets, the rebirth of refillables, effective recycling messaging, implementing reuse, managing lithium batteries, and more.
The Conference registration will be available this summer. An announcement will be sent out when the registration and agenda are available on NERC’s website.
For more information, contact Mary Ann Remolador.
Accepting Applications for the NERC 2020 Environmental Sustainability Leadership Award
The Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) is now accepting applications for its 2020 Environmental Sustainability Leadership Award program. The award recognizes individuals or organizations for the impact they have made on an environmentally sustainable economy within the NERC 11-state region.
Applications are due August 14.
To be eligible, an organization or individual must be located within one or more of NERC’s 11-member states.
Awards will be given in recognition of demonstrated change supporting an environmentally sustainable economy as the result of a project that furthers NERC’s mission, in three categories:
- NERC Advisory Member
- Public Sector
- Private Sector
The award presentations will be made at NERC's Fall Conference, October 20, Rocky Hill, Connecticut. For more information about the Conference, visit the NERC website.
A copy of the Award Application – 2020 NERC Environmental Sustainability Leadership Award is available for download.
For more information, contact Lynn Rubinstein, Executive Director.
Webinar July 22 - Learn about the Government Recycling Demand Champion Program
Taking action to support the recycling industry is essential - especially these days. A new national program, the NERC-APR Government Recycling Demand Champion Program, provides a simple strategy for closing the loop by buying products with post-consumer plastic recycled content.
Learn more on a free webinar, Wednesday, July 22, 2 p.m. eastern. All are welcome.
For more information, contact Lynn Rubinstein, Executive Director.
Newly Posted
Latest MRF Blended Value Report Published - Region Expanded
NERC has published the fourth in its series of quarterly reports on the blended value of a ton of materials marketed at MRFs in the Northeast.
This report covers the period January - March 2020, and is somewhat different from previous ones. NERC received a grant from EPA Region 3 to expand the survey throughout the Region 3 states (adding Virginia and West Virginia to the 10 states previously included in the studies), and to increase the number of MRFs in the existing Region 3 state participants. In addition, an effort was made to expand the number of dual stream and source separated MRFs to the reporting mix.
The goal for the EPA Region 3 grant was to both expand the geographic scope and to be able to incorporate information into the analysis that reflects any differences in the value of materials coming from single stream as compared to dual stream/source separated MRFs. As a result, this is the first report to include such information.
Current report: NERC Report on Blended MRF Values Survey - May 2020 EPA Region 3 States
Previous reports:
- Blended Commodity Values in the Northeast - February 2020
- Blended Commodity Values in the Northeast - August 2019
- Blended Commodity Values in the Northeast - November 2019
For more information, contact Lynn Rubinstein.
Minutes, NERC Board of Directors Meeting April 2020
The minutes from the most recent NERC Board of Directors meeting are now posted and available for download.
For more information, contact Lynn Rubinstein.
State Updates
CONNECTICUT
RecycleCT Foundation Annual Report
The RecycleCT Foundation is pleased to share their 2019 annual report, which summarizes its activities in the 2018-2019 fiscal year. Created with the passing of Public Act 14-94, RecycleCT was formed to provide research and education activities and public information programs aimed at increasing the rate of recycling and reuse in the state.
The Annual Report 2019 highlights the continued efforts to make this non-profit organization more independent, including contracting with NERC to support the Foundation’s administrative responsibilities. This support has given the Board more time to focus on developing and implementing programs, including the start of Phase III of the What’s IN, What’s OUT recycling campaign, which focuses on promotion to the general public and tools and resources for municipalities, haulers, processors and other partners.
The Annual Report 2019 is posted on the RecycleCT website in addition to its expanding Board membership. For more information about RecycleCT, please contact Sherill Baldwin.
MASSACHUSETTS
MassDEP COVID 19 Solid Waste and Recycling Guidance
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) has established a web page where we are posting all of our solid waste and recycling guidance relative to COVID 19 issues. MassDEP will continue to update this page as new policies and guidance are developed. This guidance is available here. This page also includes links to other MassDEP and Massachusetts guidance relative to COVID 19.
Recycle Smart MA Launched a Recycling Quiz for Earth Month
Recycle Smart MA launched a Recycling Quiz just in time for Earth Day! Find it here and test your knowledge.
Recycle Smart MA is a statewide education initiative sponsored by The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), designed to increase public awareness about the key do's and don'ts of recycling at home, school or work. Its specific objective is to reduce contamination in the recycling stream by focusing on the top 5 problem materials as determined by Massachusetts' 9 MRFs (one public, eight private). It's centered around the Smart Recycling Guide which is a universal list of what's accepted by all MRFs in Mass. The Smart Recycling Guide was produced through a MRF/MassDEP dialogue back in 2018 to create consistent recycling guidelines across the state. RecycleSmartMA.org also features the Recyclopedia, where users can search over 400 items to get answers on whether to recycle or manage through donation, drop-off, household hazardous waste or trash.
As of April 2020, 24K + Bay Staters are following and engaging with the Recycle Smart MA social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram), with 267 organizations signed up as Recycle Smart Partners, and over 3,200 recycling advocates subscribed to receive monthly recycling news from Recycle Smart. More than 275,000 individuals have visited RecycleSmartMA.org and have used the Recyclopedia search tool nearly 237,000 times to figure out what does (and doesn’t) belong in the recycling bin.
Feel free to share the quiz on your social media channels! Are you a master recycler? Now you can see how your recycling knowledge stacks up with the NEW - Recycle Smart MA Quiz. This two-minute crash course is guaranteed to make you a smarter recycler. Don’t forget to share your results & challenge your friends and family!
Advisory Member news
For all of the institutions of higher education out there, the College and University Recycling Coalition will be hosting the 3rd webinar in our 2020 series, “Reaching Your Collaborators: Communicating for Connection and Education” on June 18th, from 2-3pm EDT. In this program, presenters from higher education waste management programs will share strategies for communicating to a general audience on social media and connecting to collaborators on their own campus.