Some Words from NERC’s Founder

October 23, 2012

Shelley Dresser, NERC's founder and first Executive Director, continues our series of guest blogs by people who have been influential in NERC's 25 year history with some interesting notes on NERC's early history.

Here's what she says:

It is hard to imagine that NERC is 25 years old.

NERC was conceived at the Solid Waste Conference at the Penta Hotel in New York, during a conversation I had with Bernard Melewski, Counsel, NYS Commission on SolidWaste. As a garbage barge floated around NYC on a 112 day expedition, attempting to find a home for trash it was carrying, it became clear that a solution oriented approach to solid waste management was necessary. With Maurice Hinchey, a legislator from New York and the chairman of the Council of State Governments environment committee, I had all the support I needed to begin this endeavor.

NERC's name went through several iterations, from "Solid Waste Advisory Team" to "Recycling Advisory Team" to the "Northeast Recycling Council." It was difficult to find the right acronym. The early chairs of NERC were Victor Bell (from Rhode Island), Mary Shield (from New Jersey), Janice Edwards (from New York), and Will Ferretti (from New York). The focus of NERC was to develop demand and markets for recycled material.

Initial projects included work with the states on developing a procurement preference for recycled material. Additionally, we held a large procurement conference and study. NERC worked with Newspaper and Yellow Page publishers and manufacturers to reach a voluntarily agreement to include recycle content in their paper. We also worked with the Direct Marketing Association to find a way that people could limit the amount of "junk mail" they received, and to increase the recyclability and amount of recycle content in the mail. We were particularly concerned with plastic windowed envelopes.

We conducted several studies at the time, including a collaborative project with John Ruston, from the Environmental Defense Fund entitled Developing and Stimulating Markets for Secondary Materials, an office waste paper study, and a survey of solid waste programs in the states. We wrote a sample recycling law defining recyclable, reusable, and recycled content as a model for states. NERC studied options for used tires due to the frustration of slow-burning tire fires.

I was fortunate to establish a productive and long-term relationship with EPA, first working with Ron Jennings and then Cynthia Green. When NERC was first organized, only New Jersey and Rhode Island had mandatory curbside recycling programs. NERC served as a catalyst to increasing recycling in the Northeast as we sought to develop markets.

NERC is physically based in Vermont because I moved NERC from the Eastern Regional Conference of the Council of State Governments office in NYC with the blessing of the Director, Alan Sokolow, to my home in East Dover, Vermont in 1989. In essence, I telecommuted. NERC is one year older than my eldest child. NERC moved to Brattleboro in 1991, as it became clear that we needed more staff and an office. By 1992, four years after NERC's conception, we had a half-a-million-dollar budget and growing numbers of staff including Connie Salter, Michael Alexander, and Susan Olmstead.

It is wonderful to see the progress states and businesses have made to make recycling a reality. It is organizations like NERC that remind us how much more there is to do. I applaud all that you have done and look forward to continued progress in recycling and waste reduction.

All the best,

Shelley Dresser (NERC's founder and first Executive Director)

Shelly still lives in Brattleboro and is currently a science teacher and the Sustainability Coordinator at Eaglebrook School.

Guest Blogs represent the opinion of the writer and may not reflect the policy or position of the Northeast Recycling Council, Inc.