Ywiss & Tiio, the SRMT environmental cartoon characters explain how back in the day people would rely on reusing items, making items last through the times. 2022 wasn’t the exception, and we started the STOP & SWAP event where people donated unwanted used items and others took what they found valuable for free. Mostly books, lamps, and clothing. use the image for decorative purposes.
Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe on Repair and Reuse
July 6, 2023
Last year in Akwesasne, the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe’s Solid Waste Program diverted 1176.4 lbs. of reused items from the trash during reuse/fix events. The most reused item was clothing. The most commonly repaired item was lamps. We recognize the SRMT community made this reuse event a reality. People in Tribal lands are familiar with the reuse concept.
Another 2022 outcome was the very first FIX-IT CAFÉ. People brought broken items so the repair coaches could fix them for free. A few lamps were fixed and they also did small soldering repairs. Thanks to Les Benedict the 2nd from the Akwesasne community for starting the repairs. We admit to being inspired after attending the 2022 NYSAR3 Reuse Summit.
This year we are continuing the second STOP & SWAP and FIX-IT CAFÉ one-day event. Local Akwesasne volunteers will repair clothing & household items. A bicycle shop from out of town will repair bikes. Syracuse University Center for Sustainable Community Solutions is joining to explain furniture repairs and will do outreach & education. The support from other institutions and towns is valued. The SRMT MSW Program was the first to organize a reuse/repair event here in the North Country of NY. We want to let small towns know that they can do it as well.
The SRMT Recycling and Waste Reduction Handbook reminds people to only buy what they need. Shopping smart and greener by investing in durable & reusable products. How to take proper care of shoes and clothing and repair them to extend use. For us, it’s about the well-being of the land and community.
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The City of Medford won the 2025 Environmental Leadership Award for Outstanding Community presented by the Northeast Recycling Council, for its innovative work to reduce waste and create a more sustainable waste collection system through the City’s free curbside composting program. “I'm thankful to our team at City Hall, the Solid Waste Taskforce, our consultants Strategy Zero Waste and our volunteers for working so hard to launch our curbside composting program and making it such a meaningful success for our community,” Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn said. “This award shows that the work we’re doing in both composting and recycling is having real, transformative effects on how our community thinks about waste and the steps we’re taking to create a more sustainable environment for the future. We are honored to be recognized by the Northeast Recycling Council for these efforts.” Each year, NERC honors a community, an organization, and an individual for their outstanding contributions to recycling education and innovation. This year will mark the 9th annual Environmental Leadership Awards Ceremony, recognizing individuals and organizations who help further NERC’s waste and recycling goals. “Our committee is wholeheartedly impressed by the work of the City of Medford, and how important and impactful that work is for the community,” said Sophie Leone, Development and Program Manager at NERC. “It is a perfect representation of NERC’s mission to minimize waste, conserve natural resources, and advance a sustainable economy through facilitated collaboration and action and we are very excited to bestow the City of Medford with this award.” You can read more about the Environmental Leadership Awards here . And if you haven’t signed up for Medford’s free curbside composting program, you can do that at medfordcomposts.com . Read on MedfordMA.org.
In the Northeast, recycled commodity prices continued to decline in April-June, with MRFs experiencing an average decrease of nearly 6% compared to the first quarter of 2025, according to the Northeast Recycling Council’s (NERC) second-quarter MRF Values Survey Report. NERC’s 25th quarterly report analyzed data from 19 MRFs across 12 states, excluding two facilities from the average blended value “because they did not market enough commodities within Q2 to provide a representative comparison with other MRFs.” Compared to the previous quarter, the responding MRFs reported average values per ton for blended recyclables with residuals at $82.68, a decrease of 7.74%, or $96.21 per ton, a 5.99% decline without residuals. Thirteen of the 17 MRFs contributing to the weighted average were single-stream, while four operated on a dual-stream/source-separated basis. In the Northeast, dual-stream facilities reported a blended value of $99.74 without residuals and $86.52 including residuals, experiencing decreases of 7% and 7.16% from the previous quarter, respectively. Single-stream MRFs recorded blended values of $95.08 without residuals, down 5.7%, and $81.28,down 8.3%, with residuals. Factors such as tariffs and weak demand have led major waste haulers to adjust their forecasts, anticipating challenges due to economic uncertainty for the remainder of 2025. This dip in commodity prices was reflected in second-quarter earnings reports, with four companies reporting an average year-over-year decrease of 15% in commodity values. Houston-based WM projected a $15 million decline in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization due to softening demand. However, the emergence of new and upgraded polymer facilities is enhancing processing capabilities, driven by the expectation of high demand for recycled PET. A version of this story appeared in Resource Recycling on Sept 9. Read on Resource Recycling.
Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) Publishes 25 th Report Marking Six Years of Quarterly Data
