Meeting Minutes

Board Members: John Trevor, Rhode Island, President of the Board; Jeff Bednar, Pennsylvania, Vice-President; George MacDonald, Maine, Treasurer; Brenda Grober, New York; Guy Watson, New Jersey; Brooke Nash, Massachusetts; Judy Belaval, Connecticut; Carolyn Grodinsky, Vermont; Sharon Yergeau, New Hampshire; Jim Short, Delaware

Advisory Members: Chip Foley, Steel Recycling Institute

Staff: Lynn Rubinstein, Executive Director and Secretary; Mary Ann Remolador, Assistant Director; Chaille Blais, Office Manager

Discussion:

1. Fall Conference: It was suggested that we focus on framing the issues presented on Day 1 of this conference and identify potential projects, action plans for collaboration, and projects developed as a region.

   It was noted that there are many other agencies that need to be hearing about the issues, such as economic development programs, not just governors.

   Day 2 - Multi-family recycling will be a topic at the Fall conference.

   There were concerns expressed relevant to the process for conference topic selection. Lynn and Mary Ann explained the process by which the topics are chosen and the need for people to give feedback when it is asked for.

   It was further noted that getting municipalities here for a ½ day meeting when they have to travel for 3 hours each way is difficult. Doing a theme for a whole day would be more time-efficient.

   Possible Topics:
   Large waste streams that are out there that we don't tap into: Construction and Demolition - where materials can go, what they can be used for and what people can do. When you ban it, what do you tell people to do with it? It is a timely topic, but we're not sure if would be appropriate for the conference.

   Single stream - the way things are going, haulers like it, but what happens to the materials. It could be in the form of a debate, with Susan Hubbard from Eureka and someone from Pennsylvania, which has a new study out.
   
   We should try to have state environmental commissioners attend and participate in a point- counterpoint discussion.

   A discussion of plastic films and film markets would be useful.

   Haulers' roundtable - get them in the room to talk about how to get more material out of the waste stream.

   New York City - what they are going to do is going to be very influential.

   New Jersey - efforts with convenience store and park mandatory recycling.

   Possibly re-examine the effectiveness of waste bans as compared to mandatory recycling and why different strategies seem to be effective for different types of materials.

2. Other Action Items: It was proposed that a "boiler-plate" letter be prepared for use by trade associations to sign off on as a "walking around piece" that would support state-level legislation, with regard to whatever's appropriate to each state in the field of recycling. This would effectively be a demonstration of support by the trade association to the states' issues.

   There were several important points that were raised in the Trade Association discussion that should be pursued. Everyone agreed and noted that we should keep the momentum going over the next several meetings. We should also identify what the major issues are so that we're all addressing the issues from the same starting point.

Director's Report
It is almost election of officer time. The election will be conducted by email within the next couple of months. In addition, the annual dues bills for fiscal year '06 will go out shortly.

Updates:
National Carpet Product Stewardship Agreement. Many states believe that industry has not lived up to the terms of Memorandum of Understanding. The states have been discussing this concern, along with NERC, on a series of conference calls. EPA has also expressed concern. How this will develop is unknown, but Lynn can anticipate coming to the Board with a request for a position letter about the need for state legislation.

EPEAT. This is a national, multi-stakeholder initiative spearheaded by EPA to establish environmentally preferable purchasing criteria for institutional purchasers. Lynn participated as a stakeholder in the development of the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) criteria. The project is now in a phase of determining how to implement it. NERC hired Patty Dillon of Dillon Environmental Associates to serve as NERC's representative in this process. It is going very well and NERC expects to see some preliminary products by June.

MARCEE Program - We have applied for $10,000 to fund work done on EPEAT in the past and continuing work. In order to be eligible, we need to secure a $10,000 match from industry. Sharp has committed $1,000 to this match.

TPCH - Patty Dillon is providing excellent staff support to this effort, including writing a pollution prevention grant proposal for enforcement. We have been informed that we are a finalist for this grant.

Regional Electronics Legislation Project: NERC is working with the Eastern Regional Conference of the Council of State Governments to facilitate the development of regionally consistent legislation for the end-of-life management of electronics. A stakeholder meeting has been scheduled EPA Region 2 on April 29^th for stakeholder groups to meet with legislators from the 10 Northeast states to express their opinions about legislation and to engage in dialogue with the legislators. On July 25^th, 2 - 4 p.m., there will be an open meeting to discuss draft legislation - that will have been released mid-July - at the Mohegan Sun, in Connecticut.

As part of this process, a number of documents have been posted on the NERC website that summarize proposed, model, and adopted electronics legislation, as well as one-page position papers by many interest groups.

Unwanted Medications Projects: The work under both the EPA and USDA-RUS (United States Department of Agriculture - Rural Utility Service) is going very well. Three collections (including one yesterday at the NERC Conference) have been held, and two more are definitely scheduled. We continue to seek additional collection opportunities.

National Electronics Workshop: Lynn participated on the Planning Committee for this meeting that was convened by EPA.

Assistant Director's Report:
USDA- RUS Special Events Recycling: We will be working with six events in three states - Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont to help them develop and implement source reduction, recycling and composting at rural events. DSM Environmental (Peter Allison in particular) is the consultant for this project. Mary Ann has scheduled face-to-face meetings with each event. We have applied for a second year of funding that would expand the project to include Massachusetts and Connecticut. A guide will be done to help other events implement a plan that they can utilize. The guide will be available on the NERC website in early 2006.

USDA- RUS EPP Peer-to-Peer: This project is being conducted in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. We are spending a lot of time finding mentoring companies. We have discovered that the "mentees" have very specific needs and finding a good match has proven difficult. We are now looking at businesses that need more basic help.

Reuse/Materials Exchanges: This project is funded by EPA regions 1 & 2. We are developing marketing strategies for exchanges in order to expand the transactions that occur. The focus of the project is on promoting exchanges to schools and municipalities. We have hired Bryant College in Rhode Island to develop a marketing plan.

North American Green Procurement Initiative (NAGPI): Mary Ann serves as a member of this green purchasing initiative. The focus is to get all government levels to use more green products. She is going to Santa Monica, CA for a conference in April. The initiative has three foci: renewable energy, cleaning products, and office supplies and equipment.

Beneficial Use Determination Summit: Mary Ann is serving on the planning committee. The meeting will take place in Philadelphia, November 29 & 30.

Pennsylvania Recycling Market Development Center: Mary Ann will be serving as an ex-officio member.

Advisory Member Breakfast once again went well. There was a discussion about changing the meeting time. Members were appreciative of having this time to bring up issues. One member would like to improve communication with NERC, like a blog or new email listserve.

Meeting adjourned at 11:14 am.