Recycling Council Emphasizes Importance of Supply

Colin Staub • July 30, 2024

Resource Recycling


With industry-wide attention on building up recycled material end user demand, the Northeast Recycling Council is urging materials recovery stakeholders not to forget about ensuring there is adequate supply.


The organization last week published a “Guide to Increasing Recycling Supply,” a resource for stakeholders across the recycling chain. It lays out a number of ways different stakeholders have successfully built up local material supply and covers all traditional municipal recyclables.


In announcing the guide, NERC noted that “supply and demand issues are primary components to recycling market development.” But the organization expressed that the industry dialogue has skewed largely in one direction of late.


“For many years, increasing demand for recycled materials has taken precedence over supply issues,” NERC wrote.


The council in 2023 formed a supply side policy committee aiming to “explore, discuss, and write a policy guide about supply side strategies to increase the supply of post-consumer materials to the marketplace.” The new publication is the result of that process.

A majority of the Northeast U.S.-focused guide’s case studies are government-led strategies to increase supply, but it also highlights efforts spearheaded by nonprofits, MRF operators and, in areas with container deposit systems, redemption centers.


It points to Prince George’s County’s public outreach campaign in Maryland, which included bilingual communication efforts in high-contamination service areas where county officials theorized a language barrier was hampering proper recycling practices. The case study provides several lessons county regulators learned from the campaign. For instance, when trying to reach non-English speaking residents, recycling staffers had to get creative: “Attending school meetings to promote proper recycling did not necessarily work because non-English speaking residents were not attending the school meetings, hence, the decision was to visit local supermarkets where parents shop.”

In another example, the guide highlights efforts by the Massachusetts state recycling organization, MassRecycle, to counter the “negative influence of recycling misinformation in the media.” This came after a wave of public attention on problems within the recycling world in 2022, including from a Greenpeace report and the resulting coverage in an NPR story. MassRecycle was concerned the news coverage would mislead local residents into believing the bulk of their recyclables were not being correctly processed, so the organization began a coordinated effort to respond.


“Media stories implying that recycling is landfilled led to the need for professionals to defend both recycling and their personal roles,” the organization wrote in the case study.


That effort included MassRecycle board members giving media interviews with a formulated approach: They would vet the media outlet to ensure they felt it would provide a balanced article, they would avoid acronyms, they would clearly lay out industry background information, and they would limit their discussion to recycling within Massachusetts.


NERC says the supply guide will be a living resource that will expand as more case studies come in.


To read the full article click here

Share Post

Connecticut Tire Stewardship

By Sophie Leone • July 28, 2026
Connecticut Tire Stewardship (CTS) is the nonprofit organization responsible for implementing Connecticut's Tire Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program. Working with municipal transfer stations, tire retailers, auto shops, car dealerships, and other collection partners, CTS helps ensure discarded tires are responsibly collected, recycled, and put to beneficial new uses. Approximately 3.5 million tires reach the end of their useful life in Connecticut each year. Through its statewide Roll Recycle Renew program, CTS provides residents with free tire recycling opportunities while giving municipalities a practical solution for managing scrap tires. By making responsible disposal more accessible, the program helps reduce illegal dumping, protect waterways and natural resources, and keep tires out of landfills. "Connecticut Tire Stewardship is pleased to join NERC and become part of a network of organizations working to advance sustainable materials management across the Northeast. We look forward to sharing ideas, learning from our peers, and expanding responsible tire recycling opportunities throughout Connecticut," said Jesse Schofield, Executive Director of Connecticut Tire Stewardship. NERC is excited to welcome Connecticut Tire Stewardship and support its mission as a Tire Stewardship Organization implementing Extended Producer Responsibility for tires and working toward a more sustainable circular economy. For more information on Connecticut Tire Stewardship visit.

EBC Welcomes New Member: Northeast Recycling Council (NERC)

By Environmental Business Council of New England • July 23, 2026
Please join the Environmental Business Council of New England (EBC) in welcoming Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) as a new member of the organization. “NERC is a non-profit organization that conducts research, hands-on projects, training, and outreach on issues associated with source reduction, recycling, composting, environ­mentally preferable purchasing, and decreasing the toxicity of the solid waste stream. Eleven states united for environmentally sustainable materials management. We provide webinars, conferences, networking, blogs, and regional collaboration to drive the recycling economy. Special programs include: Government Recycling Demand Champions, State Electronics Challenge, Electronics Recycling Coordination Clearinghouse, and the Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse. “ EBC members include businesses and nonprofits specializing in environmental and energy technology, services, and products. They range from one-person entrepreneurial ventures and nonprofit organizations to established corporations with thousands of employees. Explore the EBC Member Directory for a complete listing of member organizations. To learn more about Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) including their discipline and services provided, please follow the link . Read on EBCNE .

US thrift boom could keep more textiles from landfills as Gen Z drives resale

By James Nanzo | The Cool Down • July 16, 2026
Americans looking to stretch their budgets are increasingly turning to thrift stores, and that shift could pay off in ways that go beyond cheaper fashion, as Retail Dive detailed . Growing interest in resale could also cut textile waste by keeping clothing in use longer before it ends up in the trash. What's happening? At a Northeast Recycling Council webinar, panelists described thrift stores as an important checkpoint before clothing becomes waste, according to Retail Dive. As secondhand shopping becomes more common, more garments have a chance to be reused, resold, repaired, or otherwise redirected instead of being thrown away. Giana Manganaro Cronin, associate director of retail for More Than Words, said high prices, tariff worries, and broader economic uncertainty have made more consumers willing to thrift, as Retail Dive reported. Young consumers are a big part of that momentum. Cronin said roughly 64% of Gen Z shoppers check resale avenues before purchasing something new, according to Retail Dive. Meanwhile, Uli Stosch, chief officer of strategic development for Planet Aid, pointed to a ThredUp report cited by Retail Dive that estimated 14% growth in the U.S. secondhand apparel market in 2024 and a rise to $74 billion by 2029. Why does it matter? For budget-conscious households, secondhand shopping can mean major savings on basics such as jeans, jackets, and kids clothes along with the chance to find rare or high-value items at steep discounts. A big challenge with textile waste is that clothing is hard to sort and recycle. Katarina Goodge, a materials research engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said recyclers often do not have the details they need to handle garments correctly, per Retail Dive. "We need to know the fiber content to know how to recycle that garment," Goodge explained at the summit, according to the outlet. The reach of secondhand clothing goes well beyond local thrift racks. Retail Dive reported that more than 1.5 billion people globally depend on secondhand clothing, and that a study from Full Cycle Resource revealed Guatemala imported 290 million pounds in 2023, reusing more than 91% of it. Even so, Stosch said many stores sell only about 10-50% of what they receive, with some of the remainder compressed for export under the "mixed rags" label, according to Retail Dive. Keeping clothes in circulation longer can reduce strain on landfills and lower demand for resource-intensive new production. Still, the clothes that don't make it aren't easy to deal with. Stosch said workers in countries such as Pakistan and Malaysia often sort clothing by hand, according to Retail Dive. What's being done? Possible solutions are coming from both researchers and policymakers. Goodge said that handheld near-infrared tools used with artificial intelligence or machine learning could speed up fiber identification, which may eventually make textile recycling more practical at scale, per Retail Dive. States are also stepping in, Retail Dive noted. In Massachusetts, textile disposal bans have already drawn more attention to clothing that cannot be resold. Stosch said receiving clean but slightly damaged clothing is workable for thrift stores, according to Retail Dive. The outlet reported that California is putting its textile extended producer responsibility law into effect, a move expected to expand donation, repair, and recycling options. Goodge concluded that repair has "huge potential" to cut into the problem, as Retail Dive reported . Read article on yahoolife.