Latest News
Welcome back, MOM meetings! Members drove their trucks up, up, up and around the capped Manchester, NH landfill to meet in person for the first time since March due to COVID-19. We had the best view and the best September weather on top to catch up on NRRA news and discuss items! Later in the afternoon, Reagan, Heather, and Bonnie also held a remote version of the MOM agenda for members who could not make it in person. We reviewed the latest in cooperative marketing and purchasing, especially the challenge with marketing #1 PET plastics; summarized the success of the Summer Webinar Series and other items in our Resource Library, reviewed recent topics on the listserve; updates on the Keene Composting Grant; a School Club report; reviewed recent events NRRA participated in and reminded everyone about NH the Beautiful sign points. Dawn Quirk reviewed the layout...Read more
The Times They Are A-Changing
If nothing else, the recycling market is exciting! Prices for recyclables go up and down, tipping fees for MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) increase, methods of collecting waste change, and our members change with them. NRRA has worked with Merrimack, NH for the last 20 years and Solid Waste Foreman, Kris Perreault, is active on our listserve. Merrimack has changed from a community that source separated recyclables (residents sort aluminum cans in one bin, cardboard in another bin, etc.) to baling single stream material (residents combine all recyclables into one bin) in a 100 cubic yard trailer to compacting this material. They currently work with NRRA to move their single stream material, as well as scrap metal, freon, electronics, bulbs, propane, and tires.
We are approaching town budget season, and some have their Municipal Solid Waste contracts to review. NRRA can assist members with...Read more
Did you know that NRRA helped its members recycle 2,206,857 pounds of plastics in 2019? According to estimates from the Environmental Protection Agency, those recycled plastics had the environmental impact of conserving 1,655,145 gallons of gasoline! To learn more about the other materials NRRA members have recycled and their environmental impact, check out our most recent Annual Report . NRRA members and their residents are increasingly hearing negative news about plastic recycling, including a recent NPR story " How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled ." While there are some challenges and limitations with plastics recycling, NRRA enables its members to responsibly recycle many plastics.
For example, NRRA offers a #1-7 baled plastics program for our members, which accounted for 25% of all plastics marketed for NRRA members in 2019. NRRA’s Vendor, Trigon Plastics in Newmanstown, PA, processes 90% of...Read more
NRRA would like to thank Madeleine DiIonno for her valuable volunteer service to NRRA. Over the past year, Madeleine assisted NRRA as a graduate student at the University of New Hampshire Carsey School of Public Policy. She volunteered her time to assist NRRA with its glass recycling work, and in particular, its processed glass aggregate program. Thanks to Madeleine's efforts, NRRA was able to provide a number of valuable resources to its members related to NRRA's processed glass aggregate program, including the following:
PGA Specifications and Approved Uses by State in New England : A document summarizing the gradation and contamination requirements, as well as the approves uses, for processed glass aggregate for the environmental protection agency and the transportation agency for each of the New England states. Preparing this document involved considerable research and consultation with various state agencies.
Processed Glass Aggregate Survey Report...Read moreNRRA's School Recycling Club has pivoted their on-site classroom workshops and school-wide technical assistance programs to remote workshops and created nine free lesson plans from NRRA's school recycling curricula in response to COVID-19.
Nine lessons from NRRA's nationally recognized curricula ( 3R's of the Common Core: Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do, or Do Without and Teaching Toxics : Creating Solutions to Household Pollution ) were broken out for age groups K-3, 4-6, 7-8 and 9-12. Each lesson plan packet includes a video introduction aligned with each packet theme, the Common Core Matrix (for teachers), a NRRA curricula lesson, a craft or activity and a link foradditional sources.
Lessons include: Recycling and Composting; Reuse and Repackaging; and Hazardous Homes. The goal is to keep recycling education alive both in the home...Read more
These webinars are available are open to all. The following audiences are encouraged to participate: municipal recycling and transfer station staff, solid waste operators, public works staff, state and local government officials and staff, educators and community members. New Hampshire solid waste operators will receive one hour of continuing education credit for each webinar for participating.
The Northeast Resource Recovery Association appreciates pets who remind everyone to recycle!Read more
Did you know that NRRA is filming a video about processed glass aggregate (PGA) and how it can be used in road and infrastructure projects? About 65 communities in New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts participate in NRRA's PGA program, which enables communities to consolidate their glass bottles and jars at host sites. The glass is then crushed into an aggregate for local use.
Filming took place over three days at and around NRRA's PGA host sites in New London, NH and Rochester, NH. The film will be available this fall and will feature interviews with NRRA members about both their experience participating in NRRA's program and their experience using the resulting aggregate in municipal public works projects. This film with be a modern version of an older PGA film NRRA worked with New Hampshire the Beautiful to produce decades ago.
To...Read more
NRRA participated in the North Country Council's "Solid Waste in the North Country" event on August 19 for a discussion of solid waste management systems, the importance of recycling, and the general management of various types of waste in New Hampshire. The event was held remotely and the speakers included Reagan Bissonnette, NRRA Executive Director , Brian Patnoe, NRRA Board member and Solid Waste Manager for the Town of Littleton, NH, and staff from the NH Department of Environmental Services.
As part of her presentation, Reagan answered the following three questions for the nearly 30 attendees. A summary of her answers are included below.
What are you seeing or hearing in regards to how municipalities have adapted practices in response to COVID-19?
There was much uncertainty in mid-March at the beginning of the pandemic, and some communities stopped recycling all or...Read more