NERC Blog

NERC convenes an Agenda Planning Committee (APC) for each of its annual conferences. Committee members include NERC Board of Directors and Advisory Members and are responsible for finalizing the list of topics to be included in the Call for Papers, reviewing and selecting abstracts to be featured at the Conference, and developing an overall theme and title. 

The APC members for the 2023 Fall Conference include:

• Mike Nork, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services
• Andrea Serlin, Serlin Haley
• Elena Bertocci, Maine Department of Environmental Protection
• Megan Mansfield Pryor, Maine Department of Environmental Protection
• Tom Pollock, GreenBlue/Sustainable Packaging Coalition
• Christien Ducker, Safety Management Systems, Inc.
• Chaz Miller, Ex Officio Board of Director
• Erin Jenson, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
• Richard Watson, Delaware Solid Waste Authority
• Toby Alves, Eco-Products
• Jenni…

This guest blog is authored by Chaz Miller and published in Waste360. The original post can be read here.

I asked myself this question as I was preparing to speak at my home county’s Recycling Awards ceremony. I wanted to let our award winners know their efforts are not in vain. While they may have seen or read stories claiming recycling is a hoax, I knew our county’s recyclables are being turned into new products.

I decided to start off with a series of before and after pictures. Before was pictures of the different materials we put in our curbside bins: aluminum and steel cans, corrugated boxes, PET bottles, etc. After was the products they are recycled into. 

Some new products are easy to show. Our aluminum cans are turned back into cans. Our steel cans are made back into cans or other steel products. Our boxes are turned into linerboard and corrugated medium and then used to make new boxes. Our mixed paper is used to make recycled paperboard for cereal boxes and other products.

Food and yard waste are…