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The Lancaster, NH Town Hall is a neat building full of surprises - from the wonderful auditorium and town offices, to the upstairs space used by the local Free Masons, it's a great community space!
On a recent visit, NRRA learned of another fantastic resource that combines reuse and community support.In the basement of the Lancaster Town Hall, there are neat rows of clothing, shoes, and household goods ready for community members in need. Run by Waypoint as their North Country Regional Office, gently used clothing and home goods are diverted from being thrown away, sorted, and then offered to 700-1000 individuals in need every year.
The latest EPA estimates show that less than 15% of textile waste is recycled in the US. That means that while 2.5 million tons of material was recycled, more than 11 million tons of textile waste was...Read more
This bus tour will start with a visit to the composting operation at WorkSong Fam in Hopkinton, NH, where residents can bring their food scraps free of charge to be composted and used on site. The tour will then continue to New London, where they ran a successful pilot program and now collect food waste at their municipal transfer station and then send it through Renewal Compost - a commercial composter. Finally, the tour will then end...Read more
We are excited to announce that Andrea Folsom, NRRA's Communications Manager, has been accepted as a member of the Leadership New Hampshire Class of 2025. Leadership New Hampshire is a statewide program whose mission is building a community of informed and engaged leaders. Andrea will participate in a 10-month program with a cohort of 38 other associates from across the Granite State who hold leadership positions in the private, nonprofit, and public sectors.
As the Communications Manager of NRRA, Andrea oversees all NRRA communications, including education and outreach. She writes and speaks extensively about recycling and waste reduction, including in state and regional forums. Andrea manages several federal grants from the USDA and EPA awarded to NRRA to help strengthen recycling across New Hampshire. As a Principal Operator through the NHDES SWOT and Certification Program, Andrea believes high quality and consistent recycling education is a necessary component of any...Read more
The Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA) is seeking new members to join its Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees is responsible for overseeing the financial and strategic priorities for NRRA. Board members also serve as an important source of information and feedback for NRRA’s executive director on how NRRA can best serve its municipal members.
Board members must be a member of NRRA, either through a municipal voting membership or an associate membership. Joining the NRRA Board of Trustees is a great way to stay up-to-date about the latest recycling issues affecting NRRA member communities.
We are especially looking for new board members who have one or more of the following attributes: Are solid waste facility managers, public works directors, select board members, or town...Read more
Applying for and managing federal grants can seem particularly daunting for smaller municipalities that may lack the personnel to write or manage grants. More often than not, municipal staff are required to wear many hats to help their community function smoothly. The Thriving Communities Network aims to reduce barriers to...Read more
At the NH Solid Waste Working Group’s June meeting, members heard presentations about mattress and battery extended producer responsibility laws by Daniel McGowan of the Mattress Recycling Council and Todd Ellis of Call2Recycle . NRRA once again welcomed the SWWG to its office in Epsom.
Mattress EPRDan McGowan shared that Connecticut, Rhode Island, and California have mattress recycling programs, and Oregon will have one starting in 2025. A user fee is added to every mattress sold in those states to fund the program. The fee in Connecticut is $11.75 and in Rhode Island it is $20.50 for each mattress sold. The fee is based on both the amount of units to be sold and the amount of units expected to be returned for recycling. In Connecticut, roughly two mattresses are sold for each one returned, whereas the ratio is closer to...Read more
The application period for this job has closed. Thank you for your interest!
About Us: The Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA) is the oldest and largest cooperative-model recycling nonprofit in the United States. NRRA partners with over 450 municipalities, businesses, and individuals throughout New England to make recycling strong through economic and environmentally sound solutions. As one of only a handful of nonprofits in the country that enables communities to manage their own recycling programs by connecting them with end markets for recyclables, NRRA supports small, rural communities across New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Founded in 1981, NRRA has a deep expertise in the recycling markets, and in partnership with our members, we share that information through education, technical assistance, and cooperative marketing.
About the Position: NRRA seeks an experienced solid waste facility operator for the position of Municipal Recycling Advisor. This position plays a...Read more
These hybrid hot water heaters have a condenser (like an air conditioner) that makes it more energy efficient. BUT these also contain refrigerant and should be placed with your other items like refrigerators and air conditioners so it can be properly drained. In some cases, these contain more refrigerant than a refrigerator!
HINT: The easiest way to tell is to look for the fan at the top. If it has a fan, then it has a heat pump!
Over the course of a week, Brian received valuable class time, as well as hands-on activities such as building a compost recipe and several site visits. These site visits included an animal mortality facility , a working farm , a compost company, and a visit to the Farmington Compost Cooperative .
A special note: the animal mortality facility, called Compassionate Composting, specializes in the respectful and dignified pick-up, handling, transport, and composting of horses and other...Read more
Over the past couple of months, the Solid Waste Working Group has focused on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws, exploring whether any specific EPR would make sense for New Hampshire in future legislation.
The April 19 th meeting featured an informative presentation about Extended Producer Responsibility by Tom Metzner, Environmental Analyst for the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection. Tom talked about CT's experience implementing EPR for paint, mattresses, tires, and batteries, all of which can save municipalities money and improve end markets for these materials.
Tom noted that in CT, thanks to an EPR program managed by PaintCare, 82% of the paint collected is recycled into new paint for reuse. He also shared that paint retailers that volunteered to participate as collection points saw an increase in foot traffic from customers as a result.
Under CT's mattress EPR program, the state...Read more