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May 2021

NERC’s Advisory Members

Distinguished Benefactors

Consumer Technology Association (CTA)

Benefactors

Coca-Cola

Samsung

Waste Management

Sustaining Members

  • Advanced Drainage Systems

  • American Beverage Association

  • Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR)

  • Blount Fine Foods

  • BlueTriton Brands

  • Bulk Handling Systems

  • Casella Resource Solutions

  • CLYNK

  • Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast, Inc.

  • Council of State Governments/Eastern Regional Conference

  • Eco-Products

  • Fire Rover, LLC

  • GDB International

  • Glass Packaging Institute

  • Henkel

  • Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI)

  • International Bottled Water Association

  • Keep America Beautiful

  • Keurig Dr. Pepper

  • MRM

  • Nestle USA

  • NEWMOA

  • PaintCare

  • Plastics Industry Association

  • Re-TRAC

  • Recycling Partnership

  • Republic Services

  • Reverse Logistics Group

  • Revolution

  • Serlin Haley

  • Sims Municipal Recycling

  • Sonoco

  • Strategic Materials

  • Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC)

  • TOMRA

  • US Composting Council (USCC)

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

New & Renewing Memberships

Renewing Sustaining Members

New Supporting Member

Renewing Supporting Member

Member Spotlight - Revolution

NERC News

Newly Posted

State Updates

DELAWARE

Advisory Member Updates

Of General Interest

New & Renewing Members

Membership is key to NERC's regional and national commitment to sustainable materials management. 2021 continues as a dynamic time with several new members, along with a great show of support by renewing members.

We sincerely thank our renewing Sustaining Members: 

We welcome returning Supporting Member - International Sleep Products Association, and thank renewing Supporting Member the National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER).

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 - Revolution

New NERC Advisory Member Revolution has a mission. “We believe in manufacturing products with the highest amount of post-consumer recycled Revolution logoresin possible through our innovative Closed-Loop System that diverts millions of pounds of plastic waste from landfills each year,” the company states. As a measure of its success, Revolution continues, “We recover, clean and process more than 150 million pounds of material each year and, since our founding, we have diverted 1.5 billion pounds of waste material from landfills.”

Headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, Revolution turns the post-consumer plastics it collects into products through a growing number of brands. “The focus in all areas is to create sustainable circular solutions and use as much post-consumer resin as possible in all products manufactured,” the company states.

Not only is Revolution “one of the largest recyclers of heavily soiled and contaminated plastic in the U.S.” It uses that recycled plastic to become one of the leading manufacturers of irrigation polytube under its Delta Plastics brand along with vine cover, silage and bunker film for the agricultural industry

Revolution bag photoAnother brand, Revolution Bag, “uses a closed-loop recycling process in which agricultural films are gathered from farms and washed and recycled to produce Encore, a high-quality APR certified Post-Consumer resin.” The company deploys the resin to create can liners that have up to 97% of the recycled resin.APR Certified PCR photo

Consumers may also see Revolution as they supply carryout and reusable bags for foodservice, grocery and retail markets under their Command brand also using as much post-consumer resin as possible.

Despite such manifold activity, Revolution continues on its growth trajectory. The company receFresh bag photontly announced the purchase of the Indiana-based Jadcore, which recycles post-industrial plastic waste and supplies it to other manufacturers. Like Revolution Bag, Jadcore also manufactures can liners and specialty bags made from post-industrial recycled (PIR) resin.

“Our shared values create an exciting opportunity for collaboration,” said Sean Whiteley, CEO of Revolution. “We are confident this merger will strengthen our combined ability to serve new end markets and deliver closed-loop collections, recycling services and manufacturing solutions rich in recycled content.”

A statement by CEO Whitely upon the occasion of Revolution’s announced expansion of its Little Rock facility captures the mission of the company. “From the beginning, we have been unified by a single powerful mission of preserving our environment for future generations,” he said. “We do this by diverting millions of pounds of plastic from landfills each year and turning it back into new products through our innovative collection and recycling processes.”

“We joined NERC after attending and presenting at conferences and webinars, and working closely with staff.  We discovered that NERC is not only a unique resource sharing our goals, but provides opportunities for collaboration and engagement in meaningful and impactful ways. We are grateful to be part of NERC,” Cherish Miller, Vice President, Sustainability & Public Affairs stated.

Despite the impressive strides that Revolution and its brands have made in addressing solutions to the plastics pollution crisis, the company is well aware that extensive collaborative action will be required to successfully solve it. That is why, in 2020, Revolution joined the U.S. Plastics Pact, a collaborative led by NERC Advisory Member The Recycling Partnership and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and launched as part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global Plastics Pact network. NERC is also a member of the Pact. The U.S. Plastics Pact brings together companies, government entities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), researchers, and other stakeholders, “to rethink the way we design, use, and reuse plastics, to create a path toward a circular economy for plastic in the United States.”

“The U.S. Plastics Pact will deliver a step change toward a circular economy, enabling companies and governments in the U.S. to collectively meet impactful by 2025 that they could not meet on their own,” Revolution stated at the time.

NERC welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with its new Advisory Member, and looks forward to the opportunity to build upon the solutions that Revolution has thus far realized.

NERC News

NERC’s Fall ’21 Conference Dates Set

October 12 & 13 are the dates for NERC’s Fall 2021 Virtual Conference.  More details will become available in the coming months.  We’ll be sure to keep you updated.

Sponsorship Opportunities Are Available

Bronze Sponsors

APR logo Republic Services logo

     

If you have any questions regarding the Conference, please contact Mary Ann Remolador, Assistant Director & Conference Organizer.

Training Needs for Diversity, Inclusion, & Racial Equity in the Solid Waste & Recycling Community - Survey

The Northeast Recycling Council (NERC), in collaboration with Michigan Diversity training logoSustainable Business Forum, and other partners, is intending to develop a national – virtual – training on diversity, inclusion, and racial equity in the recycling and solid waste communities. To be sure that the content of the training is as valuable as possible, a brief survey has been developed to solicit input from the industry. 

Thank you.  For more information, contact Mary Ann Remolador, NERC Assistant Director.

Upcoming Webinars - Lithium Batteries, Life Cycle Assessments, Environmental Benefits Calculators

NERC has begun its new webinar season with several webinars in the next few weeks:

  • Overview of Lithium Ion Batteries, their Uses, & Recycling - May 18, 1 pm eastern

    - Organized by NERC & NEWMOA in partnership with the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) New England Chapters, MassRecycle, & the Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA)

Presenters:

- George Kerchner, The Rechargeable Battery Association (PRBA): A 30 Year Evolution of Lithium Battery Applications, Chemistries, & Form Factors

- Eric Fredrickson, Call2Recycle: Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling, Challenges & Opportunities

- Kirk Sander, National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA): NWRA/ISRI/SWANA Managing Lithium Batteries Recommended Practices

  • Life Cycle Assessments & Decision-Making, May 20, 2 eastern

Ever wonder what life cycle assessment (LCA) means and how to apply the results? This webinar will provide those answers and more.  We will hear from national experts on LCAs and case studies about chemical recycling and the concrete/cement industry. 

Presenters:

- Tom Gloria, Director, Sustainability and Global Development Practice Graduate Programs, Harvard University Department of Continuing Education

- Nikolaos Vlasopoulos, head of life cycle assessment group, LafargeHolcim Innovation Center

- Tom McKay, Senior Program Manager, BASF

  • Reducing the Risk of Fires Associated with Lithium Batteries - May 25, 1 pm eastern

Organized by NERC & NEWMOA in partnership with the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) New England Chapters, MassRecycle, & the Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA)

Presenters:

    • Kevin Roche, ecomaine: Early Detection & Rapid Response Measures to Reduce Fire Risks
    • Marc Morgan, Solid Waste Manager, City of Lebanon: Transfer Station & Landfill in Lebanon, NH: Effective Responses to Fires & Best Practices in Educating Residents About Lithium Batteries
    • Marc Buckley, Republic Services: Strategies That Haulers Can Deploy to Reduce Risk of Fires from Li-Ion Batteries
  • Environmental Benefits Calculators - How they Work & How they can Help - June 8, 2 pm eastern

Join NERC and NEWMOA for a comprehensive webinar highlighting environmental benefits calculators demonstrating the climate change value of source reduction, reuse and recycling.  Featured calculators include:

    • WARM – is a tool for solid waste planners and organizations track and voluntarily report greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions, energy savings, and economic impacts from various waste management practices. WARM calculates and totals these impacts from baseline and alternative waste management practices—source reduction, recycling, anaerobic digestion, combustion, composting and landfilling.
    • ReCon – companies, government entities, and individuals estimate the environmental impacts from purchasing and/or manufacturing materials with varying degrees of post-consumer recycled content.
    • ReFed – Calculator to estimate the impacts of reducing food waste
    • Electronics Environmental Benefits Calculators – Cellphones, monitors, computers, televisions, servers, and imaging equipment

CEU credit available from NJ Rutgers, NH DES, and PROP

NERC Announces Webinar Series Sponsorship Opportunity

With the beginning of our second webinar series, NERC is once again offering the opportunity to be recognized as a sponsor. In the webinar series just completed:

  • Held 16 webinars
  • More than 7,500 registrants from around the country and Canada
  • 60% participation rate
  • All recordings and PowerPoint presentations archived on NERC website

A complete description of the sponsor program including benefits and levels of support can be found here.

Contact Lynn Rubinstein, Executive Director, for more information.

Government Recycling Demand Champion Program Grows

Two more organizations have joined the Government Recycling Demand Champion program:  Champion - Tompkins County Recycling & Materials Management (NY), and State Recycling Organization Advocate - Louisiana Recycling Coalition.

The Program supports public sector efforts to increase the purchasing of products with post-consumer plastic content.  It is a free program offered in partnership with APR.  A brief fact sheet about the program is available. For more information, contact Lynn Rubinstein, Program Manager.

NERC Convenes Glass Model Legislation Work Group

NERC invited a diverse group of stakeholders from industry and government to collaboratively develop model legislation for minimum post-consumer recycled content glass in containers and fiberglass. At the first meeting on April 8, more than 50 people attended.

The goals of the model legislation are to:

  • Develop markets for post-consumer glass containers.
  • Increase the use of post-consumer glass containers in the manufacture of new beverage and food containers and fiberglass insulation.

Work Group Co-Chairs

  • Chris Nelson, Supervising Environmental Analyst of the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection
  • Stephen Burm, Director of State Government Affairs at Anheuser-Busch with technical assistance from Ed Ferguson, Director of Sustainability at Anheuser-Busch.

        CT DEEP   Anhauser-Bush logo

Newly Posted

Minutes from April NERC Board of Directors Meeting

The minutes from the most recent NERC Board of Directors meeting is now available on the NERC website.  For more information, contact Lynn Rubinstein, Executive Director.

State Updates

DELAWARE

DNREC Launches “Recyclopedia” to Increase Recycling

A new online resource to help Delawareans take the guesswork out of recycling has been unveiled by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. The new tool, Recyclopedia, helps the public and businesses determine the quickest and easiest ways to recycle materials that would otherwise go to a landfill.

The web-based application offers an easy-to-navigate, pictorial guide for more than 200 commonly used recyclables and where those can be recycled depending on the user’s ZIP code. Whether by computer, tablet, phone or other device, Delawareans and businesses can choose or search for an item and quickly find where it should be recycled.

“Recyclopedia is a new and exciting way DNREC is harnessing technology to reduce the amount of recyclables sent to our landfills,” said DNREC Secretary Shawn M. Garvin. “One of our challenges is confusion about what and how to recycle. Recyclopedia is a one-stop resource to help everyone know how to recycle right.”

The public can determine whether items should go in the trash, or to a curbside or drop-off location.

For example, conduct a search for milk jugs and learn they are “Acceptable” to put in a curbside recycling cart. The program also informs the user to keep the cap on the jug. A search for coffee cups shows they are “Not Acceptable” to put in curbside recycling. Batteries are “NOT Acceptable” either. Instead, batteries should be brought to a DSWA Household Hazardous Waste collection event. They can also find out where those solutions would be available depending on their ZIP code.

The DNREC Division of Waste and Hazardous Substances hired software developer iWasteNot Systems to develop Delaware’s Recyclopedia. The tool is dynamic, and based on both user interaction and DNREC staff research, will be updated regularly to ensure solutions and opportunities for recycling are up-to-date. It is available in more than 100 languages.

Learn more about Recyclopedia by visiting http://de.gov/recycling.

Advisory Member News

Free Digital Tool, Online Community to Boost Easier & Improved Household Recycling

Facebook isn’t just an outlet for cute puppy videos and baby photos - it’s a great platform to crowdsource answers to your burning questions and not just the spirit animal and personality color quizzes either. Now with the help of leading consumer packaged goods brands like PepsiCo, The Recycling Partnership has partnered with Facebook’s Messenger experience to answer local recycling questions.

On March 18, in honor of Global Recycling Day, The Recycling Partnership and Facebook announced a new initiative to provide Americans with real-time personalized and hyper-local recycling information through Facebook’s Messenger experience in two communities. By asking recycling questions of Communities for Recycling, people in Atlanta and Fort Worth can find out how to recycle common items like plastic bottles, cardboard, cartons, and metal, as well as ask about and learn more about other items like yogurt cups, pizza boxes, and egg cartons by typing any item into the Messenger experience to get local, personalized recycling guidance.

Currently, the portion of the experience featuring local recycling rules is available exclusively for residents of Fort Worth and Atlanta who recycle curbside. However, anyone, anywhere can check their recycling I.Q. with a nine-question quiz and join Communities for Recycling, a national Facebook Group intended to inspire involvement in recycling in communities nationwide.

Carton Council Launch of Community Education Award Program

The Carton Council is announcing today the launch of our Community Education Award program, which will award $2,000 each to up to 25 communities across the country for their work in educating residents about recycling, with special attention paid to food and beverage cartons.

Any entity or organization that is authorized to educate residents about their local recycling program is eligible to apply. This includes community or county recycling departments and solid waste authorities, as well as materials recovery facilities (MRFs).

The award is focused on food and beverage cartons but recognizes the importance of education to promote recycling in general. To receive the award, you must show that your website accurately and clearly defines carton recycling. You will also be asked to provide at least two other examples of communications and/or marketing activities conducted during the year that promote recycling in general, while also prominently including cartons.

How to Apply

  1. Confirm food and beverage cartons are accepted in your local program.  
  2. Sign up to participate by May 14, 2021. You will receive ongoing information to help support your communications and marketing efforts throughout the year, as well invitations to webinars and other education information.
  3. Update your website using Carton Council best practices to include cartons as a recyclable material in your program. 
  4. Implement education and communications activities, making sure food and beverage cartons are promoted. 
  5. The actual submission is not due until the fall to allow participants time to execute their communications activities. Submit your entry by November 17, 2021, providing details of your communications activities. Submission forms will be provided to all who sign up.

We encourage you to sign up and participate now. More information about how you can participate can be found herePlease reach out to carton.recycling@hkstrategies.com with any questions. 

Join the Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA) for its “Recycling with Results” Virtual Conference, May 10 & May 11

Who should attend? Solid waste and recycling operators and supervisors, Recycling with Results logodepartment of public works staff, town administrators, select board members, recycling committee members, government officials, state legislators, school teachers, administrators and students, and residents interested in recycling and waste reduction. 

The conference agenda features engaging speakers who will discuss six key topics currently faced by the solid waste and recycling industry.  On Monday, attendees will learn about Engaging Residents with Municipal Recycling, Waste Reduction Strategies – Reduce, Reuse, Rot, and Recycling Safely During COVID-19.  On Tuesday, presenters will discuss National & Local Recycling Markets and Market Specifications, Plastics with a Plan: Municipal Options, and Understanding End Markets - What Happens with Your Recycling?

Thanks to conference sponsors, NRRA is able to offer this year’s virtual conference FREE to current NRRA Members (this includes transfer station staff, town administrators, select board members, and recycling committee members).  This year, NRRA is also extending a special invitation to legislators representing NRRA member communities to attend for free.  The fee for “not yet” members is only $75 (which covers both days). 

The conference will count toward NHDES continuing education credits for each hour attended live and certificates of attendance will be awarded.

Of General Interest

National Solid Waste & Recycling Survey

A National Trash Recycling Survey update is being conducted by Skumatz Economic Research Associates (SERA) for 2021. The data are used to track trends and latest methods in Solid Waste Management, conduct quantitative analyses to guide program refinements, and other studies, many of which are published in aggregate form (no name / individual data) in Resource Recycling. This year’s special topic includes a drill-down on contamination strategies.

As advocates in the industry, we are hoping you can help us with a survey and be entered for a drawing if you wish. Previous results were presented in a free webinar last fall and the results of this national study will also be presented at various state conferences.  

In the past, the survey has typically taken 15-20 minutes.  If you need to do part, and then hold it open – or come back in, the survey allows that.  Feel free to call if you have questions or would rather complete it by phone (303/494-1178; dsouza@serainc.com).  Thank you very much!