June 2021

January 1, 2021

New & Renewing Members

New Supporting Members

Renewing Sustaining Member

Renewing Supporting Member


State Updates


MassDEP 2020 Municipal Recycling & Solid Waste Survey Data Now Online

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) has posted the first round of 2020 Municipal Recycling and Solid Waste Survey data online at https://www.mass.gov/lists/recycling-solid-waste-data-for-massachusetts-cities-towns. This information is reported by municipalities on a yearly basis and includes annual trash and recycling tonnages, solid waste program and service descriptions, waste reduction elements and types of recyclables, difficult to manage and hazardous materials collected, and more. Note: When you open the spreadsheet file, there is a sheet titled “Read Me” that provides descriptions of each data field in the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet includes data from municipalities that submitted their reports by February 15, 2021. Municipalities are required to submit their 2019 and 2020 data through the online platform Re-TRAC Connect™ in order to be eligible for Sustainable Materials Recovery Program (SMRP) grants.


MassDEP’s Sustainable Materials Recovery Program Grant Awards Announced 

On May 6, 2021, the Baker-Polito Administration announced $1.3 million in Sustainable Materials Recovery Program (SMRP) grants to 34 municipalities and regional districts to increase the diversion, reuse, composting and recycling of materials in the solid waste stream. This is the second round of awards through the SMRP, which was created under the Green Communities Act and is administered by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP). An alphabetical list of the city, town, regional group or non-profit that has been awarded, as well as additional grant information can be found on our SMRP program webpage.


Recycle Smart MA reaches 28,000 Followers

MassDEP continues to work to get the word out about what items should and should not be placed in recycling bins through our Recycle Smart MA (RSMA) program. You can read our most recent newsletter, “It’s in the bag…” here, or view our archive. And, if you would like to help get the word out about how to reduce contamination and improve the quality of our recyclables, you can sign up as a Recycle Smart MA partner here. Follow RSMA on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram and please feel free to share our content!


MassDEP-hosted Home Composting Webinar Available on YouTube

In honor of Earth Day, MassDEP’s composting guru Ann McGovern hosted a home composting webinar for general audiences. The webinar, titled “Home Composting for Zero Waste (Everything You Wanted to Know about Composting but Were Afraid to Ask),” was well attended and Ann answered dozens of audience questions related to home composting. The webinar was recorded and can be found on MassDEP’s YouTube channel:​ https://youtu.be/Sd3dE3ZHSVo. The video has a few technical glitches in the beginning (till about the 6 minute mark) but stick with it because it becomes more pleasant to watch and it is very informative. It ends with an original compost song. 


MassDEP Implements Minimum Performance Standard for Construction & Demolition (C&D) Handling Facilities 

MassDEP is continuing to work with our C&D Handling Facilities – processors and transfer stations – to implement our Minimum Performance Standard (MPS) for waste ban compliance by these facilities. Implementation of the MPS will ensure a level playing field that will result in consistent separation of C&D materials across the industry. For more information, please visit this Mass DEP web page as well as a frequently asked questions document


RecyclingWorks in Massachusetts Compost Training 

The RecyclingWorks in Massachusetts program provided a training workshop for compost site operators in April. The presentation, training materials, and a recording of the workshop are available online here. Scroll down to Compost Site Operator Workshops to view these materials, as well as materials from past workshops.


Upcoming Webinar: Green Your Bottom Line in Food & Beverage Businesses

RecycingWorks in MA, in collaboration with the UMass Amherst Center for Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Companies (CEERE), will be hosting a free webinar on the topic of preventing, rescuing, and diverting food waste on June 18 (1pm-2pm). In this hour-long webinar, RecyclingWorks will share program information and resources with food manufacturers and distributors, and make connections to facilitate further food donation activity between food recovery organizations.


Companies that manufacture or process food and beverages are increasingly important to the New England economy. While products and facility size vary, they all use and pay for energy, water, chemicals (cleaning products or others) and waste management. Reducing these costs can help to sustain and expand a business, while ensuring that products are safe for consumption.

Green Your Bottom Line is an initiative to support food and beverage businesses in making improvements to their facilities and processes, which will benefit both their businesses and the environment.


For more information, please visit Green Your Bottom Line.


DEC & SUNY ESF Partner to Improve Recycling Quality Statewide

The New York State Center for Sustainable Materials Management (NYS Center for SMM), based at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), launched a first-of-its-kind statewide recycling website to address residential recycling confusion and contamination across the State. Visitors to RecycleRightNY.org will learn about the value of everyday materials and why it is important to recycle correctly.


The Recycle Right NY campaign was originally launched by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) after a series of recycling stakeholder meetings in 2018 to jump start discussion aimed at addressing challenges facing New York's recycling system. Campaign management was transitioned to the Syracuse University Center for Sustainable Community Solutions (SU-CSCS), a core partner with the NYS Center for SMM. The SU-CSCS team worked with more than 100 New York state recycling professionals to further build out this important resource.


The Recycle Right NY site features new resources such as a search tool to help visitors easily find their local recycling guidelines, as well as a "Recyclopedia" - an encyclopedia for recycling - that will provide waste reduction, reuse, and recycling tips for more than 300 common household items. Together, these resources will help residents to learn more about what is and is not recyclable, and how best to reduce, reuse, and recycle in their communities.


"So many people ask me: Can any item with the recycling symbol on it be recycled? Recycling can be confusing and often leads residents to "wish-cycle," or optimistically place items in their recycling bin even if it is not an acceptable recyclable item. Meanwhile, municipalities face complex challenges to properly collect, sort, and market clean recyclable materials. I am thrilled that the Recycle Right NY effort will reduce contamination of recycling streams across the State by offering direct support to community leaders on how their residents can improve their recycling habits," said Gary Carrel, NYS Association for Reduction, Reuse, and Recycling (NYSAR3) Board President and Erie County Solid Waste Recycling Specialist.


"Our goal is to make recycling easy to understand and simple to do. We hope to shift the perception of used materials as 'waste to be discarded' to 'resources to be recovered '", said Melissa Young, Assistant Director for Syracuse University's Center for Sustainable Community Solutions, "Beyond recycling, we hope to inspire and empower New Yorkers to reduce and reuse items when possible, which will greatly aid us in our journey to becoming the lowest waste producing state in the country."


In addition to the new recycling website, the Recycle Right NY campaign has launched its own social media pages and e-newsletter, and will develop new educational resources such as short videos, a resource locator map, and much more.

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September 17, 2025
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.
By Resource Recycling September 10, 2025
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.
August 29, 2025
Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) Publishes 25 th Report Marking Six Years of Quarterly Data