News &
Updates

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

September 2021

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 Members

Renewing Sustaining Members

New Supporting Member

City of Newburyport, Massachusetts

Renewing Supporting Members

NERC News

On the Horizon: Reuse, Solar, Soil & Justice—NERC’s Fall Virtual Conference
Jobs & the Economy Thanks to Recycling: Recycling Economic Information Studies, & Achieving Net Zero GHGs in the Solid Waste Industry Upcoming October Webinars

Newly Posted

State Updates

MASSACHUSETTS

Advisory Member Updates

New & Renewing Memberships

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.

Thank renewing Sustaining Members Republic Services and SSI Schafer. We also welcome our newest Supporting Member City of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Several Supporting Members have also renewed, and we are very grateful for their continued support:

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.

NERC News

Make your plans now to join us on October 12, 13 & 14 (1 p.m. – 5 p.m. daily, eastern) for NERC’s virtual Conference— On the Horizon: Reuse, Solar, Soil & Justice. The Conference will feature some of the most talented industry professionals. They include:

Day One Keynote Address: Dr. Carlton Waterhouse, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Land & Emergency Management, US EPA

Recycling Policies

Abbie Webb, Director of Sustainability, Casella Recycling
Sydney Harris, Senior Associate for Policy & Programs, Product Stewardship Institute
Miriam Gordon, Policy Director, UPSTREAM Solutions

Front of House Food Scraps & Compostable Packaging Discussion

David Fridland, Sustainability Manager, Eco-Products
Wendell Simonson, Marketing Director, Biodegradable Products Institute
Toby Alves, Zero Waste Specialist, Eco-Products
Debra Darby, Manager of Organics Sustainability Solutions, Tetra Tech

The Country’s Strongest Environmental Justice Law

Nicky Sheats, Esq,, Director, Center for Urban Environment, John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy at Thomas Edison State University & Board Member of the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance
Maria Lopez-Nunez, Director of Environmental Justice & Community Development, Ironbound Community Corporation
Matthew Karmel, Environmental Lawyer, Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland & Perretti LLP

Ocean Transportation Issues & Impacts on Recycling Markets - Bill Rooney, Vice President Strategic Development, Kuehne & Nagel, Inc.

Better than New? Reusing & Recycling Solar Panels

Robin Ingenthron, CEO, Good Point Recycling
Emmanuel Nyaletey, Board of Director, Fair Trade Recycling
Trevor de Young, Solar Panel Repurposing Expert, Good Point Recycling

Day Three Keynote Address: Adam Minter, Journalist & Author

Reuse – Repair & Refurbishment of Consumer Goods

Mitra Gruwell, Owner, Discard Upcycling - Viking Textile Maker Hub
Peter Mui, Founder, Fixit Clinic - Fix Locally, Act Globally

Reuse & Environmental Justice

Presenters

Diane Cohen, Executive Director, Fingerlakes ReUse - ReUse & Environmental Justice
Nancy Meyer, CEO/Executive Director, Community Forklift - Economic, Environmental & Social Justice Opportunities in Reused Materials

Conference attendance eligible for NHDES, PROP & RutgersNJ CEUs

BRONZE SPONSORS

Conference Contact: Mary Ann Remolador, Assistant Director & Event Coordinator

Jobs & the Economy Thanks to Recycling:- Recycling Economic Information Studies, & Achieving Net Zero GHGs in the Solid Waste Industry – October Webinars

Achieving Net Zero GHGs in the Solid Waste Industry - October 19, 1:30 eastern

Finding a successful route to addressing climate mitigation goals as part of solid waste management is critical. The three presenters will provide examples and context for how leadership organizations have been acting and what those actions have achieved.

Speakers will be:

Anne Germain, Chief Operating Officer & Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for the National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA)
Abbie Webb, Director of Sustainability, Casella Waste Systems
Evan Edgar, Principal Engineer and President, Edgar & Associates, Inc, and lead author of California’s Waste Sector Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Report

Jobs & the Economy Thanks to Recycling: Recycling Economic Information Studies - October 26, 1:30 eastern

Recycling Economic Information Studies provide an exciting window into just how big of a deal recycling is for the economy and jobs. On this webinar, we'll learn about the continuing work that ISRI has been doing on this important topic, as well as the US EPA's most recent national report, and the State of Connecticut's study published in 2021.

Speakers will be:

Bret Biggers, ISRI
Juri Freeman, RRS
Lawrence Doppelt, EPA

Webinar Series Sponsors

CEU credits are available from PROP and the NH Solid Waste Operators Program

Newly Posted

NERC Blended Value of a MRF Ton Update Demonstrates Positive Trends in Region

The ninth in its series of quarterly reports on the blended value of a ton of materials marketed at MRFs in the Northeast has been published by NERC. The report covers the period April – June 2021. Ten states are represented in this report, including Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia.

These survey results reflect the differing laws and collection options in the participating states. Four of the states have beverage container deposit laws. As a result, fewer glass bottles, PET bottles and aluminum cans are processed in MRFs in those states. Those MRFs are also likely to have less revenue from those recyclables. In addition, the report reflects a mix of single stream, dual stream and source separation to collect recyclables with single stream being the most common approach. The type of collection used will have an impact on MRF design and operation. Thus, the data from this report reflects the unique blend of facilities and statewide laws in the reporting states.

Overall, values were up significantly from the previous quarter, and dramatically from the 1^st of the year.

Average value per ton with the expense of handling residuals: $125.13 – up 29% from the previous quarter, and up 132% from the beginning of 2021.
Average value per ton without residuals: $134.26 - up 35% the previous quarter, and up 122% from the beginning of the year.

MRF value of a ton chart August 2021 The study was made possible with a grant from EPA Region 3.

Current report: MRF Blended Commodity Values in the Northeast August 2021

Previous reports:

For more information, contact Lynn Rubinstein.

Updated State Program Contact Information

One of the resources that NERC maintains is program contact information for its member states. This is an easy-to-use resource for finding the right person to speak with on a specific topic. The links are found on the state pages from the NERC home page.

Solid Waste Facilities in the Northeast Updated

NERC has long maintained a webpage providing links to each of its member states online solid waste facility resources. It has now been updated: Solid Waste Facilities in the Northeast.

NERC-NEWMOA Joint Initiative Annual Report

In June 2017, the NERC and NEWMOA Boards of Directors entered into a Joint Strategic Action Plan, which was updated in 2019, to further action on matters of mutual concern. An Annual Report for fiscal year 2021 which chronicles the remarkable results that continue to be made.

For more information, contact Lynn Rubinstein, NERC.

Government Recycling Demand Champion Fact Sheets Updated

The Government Recycling Demand Champion Program is an incentive program to support purchasing of products with post-consumer resin. It focuses on the public sector and all schools, colleges and universities. Offered in partnership with APR, NERC is the lead.

Program fact sheets have been updated and the links are found here.

For more information about the program, contact Lynn Rubinstein, Program Manager.

State Updates

MASSACHUSETTS

Baker-Polito Administration Awards Grants to Support Growing Recycling

On July 21, the Baker-Polito Administration awarded $565,000 in grants to support the recycling industry. Administered by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), the Recycling Business Development Grant (RBDG) program will expand operations for a handful of recyclers. This funding will help increase both the quantity and quality of recycling processes at Black Earth Compost, LLC; Planet Aid, Inc.; Recycleworks, Inc.; Superior Waste & Recycling; and Zero Waste Solutions, LLC. Governor Charlie Baker is confident that advancing opportunities to increase recycling will help protect Massachusetts’ natural resources and stimulate the economy all at once.

These grants will help provide necessary funding for more infrastructure to better process various materials for recycling. The RBDG program specifically targets hard-to-recycle materials like container glass, food waste, mattresses, and textiles that were once not able to be processed. Opening up the doors for more infrastructure to process these materials will help Massachusetts keep waste out of landfills and promote more re-use of everyday items.

For more information, refer to the MassDEP’s press release. Visit the MassDEP website to learn about other grants and technical assistance to support recycling and waste reduction.

Massachusetts Green Team Ready for New School Year

Now is a great time for Massachusetts educators to register for the 2021-2022 school year! We are conducting outreach and sending digital kit materials to those who have registered.

New resources for 2021-2022:

We recently published the Compost for the Earth video featuring the original song performed by Ann McGovern.
We developed a set of recycling, composting (and more) signage for K-12 schools, which are available on the Green Team website here.

Two New Case Studies from RecyclingWorks in MA

Home City Development Inc. - the non-profit real estate developer based in Springfield worked with RecyclingWorks to salvage materials for reuse during their renovation projection converting the historic Elias Brookings School into an affordable housing complex.

Brandeis University – the research institution in Waltham, MA implemented a dorm and public space recycling program with support from RecyclingWorks and established a performance plan for their food service provider focused on eight sustainability goals.

New Report on The Economic Impact of Reuse in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) partnered with a team of Master’s students from the Tufts University Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning (UEP) program to analyze the economic impact of the reuse sector in Massachusetts. The final report, “No Waste To Spare: An Economic and Spatial Analysis of Massachusetts’ Reuse Economy,” was published in May 2021 and provides important baseline measures for MassDEP’s strategic reuse planning efforts. The study found that the reuse economy in Massachusetts contributes about $7.3 Billion each year or $1,067 per capita per year in sales, supporting the local economy. Based on 2020 data, there are 6,438 secondhand retail, repair, and rental businesses making up nearly 2 percent of all statewide businesses and about 1 percent of employment (32,828 jobs). Spatial analysis further revealed that reuse businesses in Massachusetts are most densely located in Suffolk County, Hampden County, and Hampshire County, suggesting that there may be a correlation between population density and reuse business density. To see the full report, visit: https://www.mass.gov/doc/no-waste-to-spare-an-economic-spatial-analysis-of-massachusetts-reuse-economy-may-2021/download

Advisory Member Updates

NRRA Annual Report

The Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA) is pleased to announce the release of our 2020 Annual Report. The compact, flip-book format makes it easy to share the value of recycling and NRRA membership with municipal staff, elected officials, and residents. The report includes the following features:

Summary of notable achievements and member services, including our Environmental Impact Report, with links to our website
Revenue and Expenses breakdown for Fiscal Year 2020
Tonnages by Commodity infographic
Special thank you to our members, vendors and donors

Strategic Materials, Inc. Rebrands In Celebration of 125-Year Anniversary

North America’s largest glass recycler, Strategic Materials, Inc. (SMI), today unveiled a new logo, purpose, mission and values. The rebrand reflects what the company has always been: a trusted glass recycler.

Since its start in 1896 as a partner to General Electric (GE) for recycling lightbulb glass, SMI has evolved from one of America’s first environmental pioneers to the leading go-to glass recycling solutions provider with operations in three countries.

The company brand refresh is the product of a rigorous year-long research and

Strategic Materials 125 Anniversary logo

creative strategy process, centered on feedback from employees, customers, suppliers, and investors, focused on the commitment to do the right thing for people, partners and planet.

“We’ve spent the past year reflecting on who we are and where we came from to help ground us in who we need to be,” said Chris Dods, SMI’s President & CEO. “We listened to our key stakeholders and used their feedback as a guide in our branding structure and operating principles to better service our markets for the recycling challenges today and beyond.”

To commemorate the rebrand, SMI is set to launch the company’s first-ever sustainability report in the coming weeks and has a new website rolling out in the fall.

The new logo, purpose, mission, and values are officially live on the SMI website.

ISRI Publishes New Policy on EPR

The private sector recycling infrastructure in the U.S. touches almost every part of the economy – from retail stores, office complexes, residential neighborhoods and schools, to factories, industrial operations including construction and demolition sites, and even military bases. Reflecting the essential role of recycling in the economy, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) updated its policy position on product stewardship.

Recycling in the United States depends upon a market‐based system ‐‐ through which obsolete, previously used, off‐specification, surplus, or incidentally produced materials are processed into specification‐grade commodities and consumed as raw‐material feedstock in lieu of virgin materials in the manufacture of new products.

To address facilitation of the proper recycling of difficult to recycle items, ISRI supports consideration of policies that are temporary in nature to support markets for recycling of those items until the markets mature, and that require consumers and manufacturers to:

Provide a collection mechanism for difficult to recycle items which could be accomplished through manufacturer facilitated collection systems developed in cooperation with retailers or other entities, and/or
Compensate municipalities / recyclers for costs associated with separate collection, transportation, and processing systems for difficult to recycle items.

Further, should an EPR scheme be proposed in a state legislature for residential recycling that incorporates a producer responsibility organization (PRO) structure, to ensure ISRI has a seat at the table so as to protect the interests of the recycling industry, ISRI would evaluate the state’s proposal for an EPR program and seek to ensure industry’s interests are considered.

This position is one element of ISRI’s policies and positions to address challenges and opportunities within the recycling industry.The position was adopted by the ISRI Board of Directors on July 16, 2021.

NWRA Issues Policy Position on Extended Producer Responsibility

The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) released its policy position on extended producer responsibility (EPR). Challenges with recycling have resulted in increased efforts to pass legislation at both the federal and state level advocating for EPR. While well intentioned, many of these bill fail to address the root of the problems and also overlook existing recycling programs and their achievements.

NWRA identified five significant issues currently facing recycling:

Insufficient demand for some recyclables
Low prices for the combined recycling stream
Consumer behavior challenges
Public concern over plastic in the environment
Inexpensive virgin resources

“Americans want accessible and effective recycling. They want sustainable products that support the circular economy,” said NWRA President and CEO Darrell Smith. “NWRA prefers efforts focused on increasing demand for recyclable materials to allow market forces to incentivize recycling. Increased use of post-consumer content is essential to increase demand.”

The last 25 years of legislative history on recycling has been focused primarily on creating supply—without consideration of adequate end markets. Given that, our recycling system has been set up to continuously generate material even when demand falls and prices drop. Any legislation that proposes to address recycling issues needs to first focus on correcting this problem by incentivizing the demand for recyclables, rather than continuing to focus only on adding supply.

PaintCare Collects 50 Millionth Gallon of Paint

As of June 30, 2021, PaintCare—the nonprofit organization set up by paint manufacturers to operate paint recycling programs—has collected more than 50 million gallons of paint from households and businesses. PaintCare programs are available in states that have passed paint stewardship laws and provide a statewide network of convenient locations where the public can recycle postconsumer (leftover) paint, stain, and varnish.

“We are excited to announce our 50 millionth gallon of paint collected across ten programs,” said PaintCare President Marjaneh Zarrehparvar. “We are grateful to our partners—paint and hardware stores, household hazardous waste facilities, and other organizations, working together with paint manufacturers to take responsibility for leftover paint and lower the cost of paint management. Our program offers new options for households, businesses, and institutions to dispose of leftover paint responsibly, diverting it from landfills to be recycled into new paint products, or put to other beneficial uses.”

Paint stewardship laws ensure that everyone involved in the production, sale, and use of paint work together to manage the entire product life cycle of paint. The program is funded by a fee on sales of new paint and remitted to PaintCare by paint manufacturers to operate the program. The fee funds all aspects of the program in each state, including paint collection, transportation, processing, and public education.

In July 2009, Oregon passed the nation’s first such law with support from the paint manufacturers. Over the following 10 years, PaintCare has launched programs across the country following the passage of similar laws in California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Maine, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and, most recently, New York, where a new program is expected to begin operation in 2022. There are more than 2,000 drop-off sites across all of PaintCare’s programs, most at paint and hardware retail stores. In addition, PaintCare has managed paint from more than 5,840 collection events.

As PaintCare is surpassing this impressive milestone, it continues to hone its operations and public outreach efforts. Recently, the organization lowered its threshold to quality for a large volume pickup from 200 gallons to 100 gallons, measured by container size (not liquid volume), creating a new opportunity for large scale paint collection for many more consumers. PaintCare has provided more than 5,000 free pickups for households, businesses, and organizations with large amounts of paint to recycle.

Additionally, the organization recently underwent a rebranding process to increase the effectiveness of its public education efforts around paint stewardship. “As we look forward to PaintCare’s next ten years and expansion to additional states, we took the opportunity to refresh our brand to ensure our identity and mission are better understood by paint consumers,” said PaintCare Director of Communications Brett Rodgers. “PaintCare’s updated logo is intended to more clearly illustrate the organization’s role providing valuable support to businesses and households in the form of convenient paint recycling options.”

APR Announces Meets Preferred Guidance Recognition Program

The Association of Plastics Recyclers (APR) today announced a new program to recognize companies that develop packaging that meet the “APR Preferred” category according to APR’s definition of recyclability outlined in the APR Design® Guide for Plastics Recyclability.

Participation in the Meets Preferred Guidance (MPG) Review Program encourages companies that manufacture packaging materials and components, as well as finished packages, to obtain an independent assessment from APR to determine if their product meets the Preferred guidance criteria.

“Poor package design leads to contamination in the recycling stream which impacts not only the recyclers, but also the companies that manufacture packaging,” stated Sandeep Kulkarni, APR’s Technical Consultant that manages APR Recognition Programs. “It reduces the quality of postconsumer recycled resin (PCR) that brands ultimately need to achieve their corporate sustainability goals.”

APR’s MPG Program is an engineering assessment of the technical compatibility of either a package design feature, or a complete package, with today’s plastics recycling processes. Packaging designed to have negligible or no impact on the quality of recycled plastics, as well as negligible or no impact on the productivity of the recycling process, enable a circular economy.

The use of plastic packages that achieve the design principles outlined in the APR Design® Guide for Plastics Recyclability help to ensure that good quality recycled plastic is available in the market for brand companies that are committed to using PCR in their plastic products.

“APR supports brands and manufacturers across the country and around the world in ensuring that products and packaging are made to be recycled,” commented Steve Alexander, APR President & CEO. “The APR Design® Guide for Plastics Recyclability, coupled with APR training programs, testing protocols, and product recognition opportunities such as the Meets Preferred Guidance Review Program, give companies confidence that the items they make can be effectively recycled.”

APR will hold a free webinar on September 14^th at 2:00 pm eastern to detail the MPG Program, as well as the other Recognition Programs that APR offers. Register now.

Visit the APR website for more information about the Meets Preferred Guidance Program, as well as other Recognition Programs APR offers.