NERC's 2023 Fall Conference - A Resourceful Future for Sustainable Materials Management

September 12, 2023

The Northeast Recycling Council’s (NERC) 2023 Fall Conference—A Resourceful Future for Sustainable Materials Management—offers attendees a multitude of opportunities for engaging in critical discussions with colleagues and promote circular economy practices while hearing from noteworthy speakers, panelists, and exhibiters. The Conference topics include Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), Recycling Market Development, Recycling Media Literacy, Recycling and Composting in Environmental Justice (EJ) Communities, and Policies to Support Organics Programs. The one-and-a-half-day Conference will be held in-person on November 1-2 at the Hotel Providence in Providence, Rhode Island. 

Brett Smiley, Mayor of Providence will kick off the Conference with welcoming remarks and the keynote address, Incentives for Eco-design in Extended Producer Responsibility Programs, will be given by Reid Lifset, a Research Scholar and Resident Fellow in Industrial Ecology from Yale University. Following the opening remarks, four presenters will provide updates on existing packaging EPR laws in four states: Darla Arians, EPR Program Lead at Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment; Jessica Nadeau, Environmental Specialist at Maine Department of Environmental Protection; Karen Kayfetz, Branch Chief, Product Stewardship Branch, of CalRecycle; and Rachel Perlman, a Consultant at Resource Recycling Systems. The following session will discuss EPR for Hard to Recycle Materials, specifically focusing on used electronics, batteries, and household hazardous waste. Naomi Manahan, a Senior Operations Program Manager from Reverse Logistics Group, will cover Illinois & South Carolina's Electronic Stewardship Legislation, and staff from the District of Columbia’s Department of Energy and Environment will detail DC's Battery Producer Responsibility Law. Wrapping up the EPR discussion, Josh Kelly, Solid Waste Program Manager at Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources, will describe the Household Hazardous Waste EPR Program. 

The second half of the day will feature three presenters on the New Approaches to Recycling Market Development session. Kate Walker, Executive Director of SUNY Center for Sustainable Materials Management, will speak about Partnerships for Zero Waste Projects in New York State. Sean Sylver, Recycle Planner at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, will speak about using a Diverse Stakeholder Recycling Market Development Workgroup for State Planning. Ross Bergman, GreenBlue Institute's Director of Recycled Material Standard, will present on Attributes of Recycled Content Certificates for New Revenue Streams and More Resilient Markets. 

Concluding the first day will be a four-person panel on Media Literacy as It Pertains to Recycling. Gretchen Carey, Sustainability Manager of New England Region, Republic Services, and President of Mass Recycle, will lead a discussion on Creating and Sharing the Story. Dan Green, CEO of Helpsy, will speak about Increasing Awareness and Dispelling Myths About Textile Recycling. A Communication Strategies and Key Messaging discussion will be offered by Oregon Metro’s Program Manager, Jill Hrycyk. Finally, JoAnn Gemenden, Executive Director of New Jersey Clean Communities, will lead a conversation on using a Digital Platform for Increasing Recycling Rates.   

Day Two will begin with a presentation on Scaling New Recycling & Composting Programs in Environmental Justice Communities by Chris Gaynor, Climate Justice Specialist with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management; and Amelia Rose, the Executive Director of Groundwork Rhode Island. The final topic, Policies and Regulations to Encourage Organics Programs, will be discussed by a panel of professionals. The Center for Ecotechnology’s Heather Billings will focus on Assessing Food Waste Policies. The topic of Pivoting Organics Diversion Messaging to a Rodent Control Measure will be covered by Michael Orr, Recycling Director of the City of Cambridge Massachusetts Department of Public Works. The third panelist, Shannon McDonald, Natural Resource Planner at Maryland Department of the Environment will cover Creating Sustainable and Equitable Programs. 

The Conference Agenda provides greater details about the sessions and schedule.

At the Conference, NERC will also premiere the Emerging Professionals Program, designed to foster the growth and development of new talent in the field of sustainable materials management. The Program gives organizations the opportunity to sponsor their newest employees or interns to attend the conference at a reduced rate, network with colleagues, and hear from and make connections with industry experts and seasoned professionals. 

We would like to thank the Conference sponsors. They include Recycle Coach, Networking Reception sponsor; The Association of Plastic Recyclers and Republic Services, Silver Sponsors; and Carton Council, the Environmental Research & Education Foundation, and PaintCare, Bronze Sponsors. Finally, our Supporting Sponsors are American Recycler, Recycling Today, Resource Recycling, and WasteAdvantage magazine. 

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August 29, 2025
Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) Publishes 25 th Report Marking Six Years of Quarterly Data
By Recycled Materials Association July 29, 2025
The Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) has opened the 2025 Emerging Professionals (EP) Program . Now, in its third year, the program provides professionals who are new to the field of recycling, sustainability, and environmental stewardship with discounted access to NERC’s Conference and Foundations Course, sponsored by their employer organization. EPs gain valuable connections with seasoned industry professionals and peers while engaging in discussions on current trends, challenges, and innovations shaping the industry. This program is designed for those with three or fewer years of experience. “This year, EPs also receive a discount to our Foundations of Sustainable Materials Management course (a live, instructor-led training) developed to provide the key building blocks for understanding the industry,” said Mariane Medeiros, Senior Project Manager at NERC. “It’s a great way to close the loop: gaining both a strong technical foundation and real-world connections in one experience.” Read and Learn More.
By Chaz Miller June 30, 2025
Recycling coordinators know that some people and locations are stubbornly indifferent to recycling. COVID has ruptured civic values and behavior. Creating a recycling culture is harder than ever. Producers know how to sell their products. Now they need to learn how to sell recycling. On July 1, Oregon’s packaging and paper extended producer responsibility (EPR) program begins operating. This will be a first in our country. “Producers”, instead of local governments or private citizens, will be paying to recycle packages and paper products. Colorado’s program begins operating early in 2026. For years we have heard the theory of how packaging EPR will work. At last, we will get results. Five other states also have laws. Their programs should all be operating by 2030. None of the state laws have identical requirements. The Circular Action Alliance, the “producer responsibility organization” responsible for managing the program in most of those states, knows it has a lot on its plate. EPR laws are not new to the U.S. Thirty-two states already have laws that cover a wide variety of products such as electronics, paint, mattresses, batteries, etc. Those laws are relatively simple. Most cover one product. The producer group is a small number of companies. Goals and programs are focused and narrow. They are a mixed bag of success and failure. Packaging EPR is far more complex. The number of covered products is way higher. Thousands of companies are paying for these programs. Goals are challenging. Some are impossible to meet. In addition, local governments treat recycling as a normal service. Their residents will still call them if their recyclables aren’t picked up. It probably hasn’t helped that advocates tout EPR as the solution for recycling’s problems. We are told we will have more collection and better processing with higher recycling rates. Markets will improve and even stabilize. Some of this will happen, but not all. Collection and processing should go smoothly in Oregon. The state has high expectations for recycling. I have no doubt recycling will increase. Collection programs will blanket the state, giving more households the opportunity to recycle. I’m not sure, though, how much of an increase we will see. Recycling coordinators know that some people and locations are stubbornly indifferent to recycling. COVID has ruptured civic values and behavior. Creating a recycling culture is harder than ever. Producers know how to sell their products. Now they need to learn how to sell recycling. Another challenge is the “responsible end market” requirements. You’ve probably seen pictures of overseas dumps created by unscrupulous or just naïve plastics “recyclers”. In response, Oregon and the other states are requiring sellers and end markets to prove they are “responsible”. They must provide information about who and where they are, how they operate, how much was actually recycled, and more. Recycling end markets pushed back. Paper and metals recyclers argue they shouldn’t be covered. They don’t cause those problems. As for plastics, the general manager of one of America’s largest plastics recycling companies said his company now spends time and money gathering data and filling out forms to prove they’re “responsible”. His virgin resin competitors don’t have to. Ironically, we now import more plastics for recycling than we export. Maybe those countries should impose similar requirements on their plastics recyclers. Colorado faces unique problems. The mountain state is large. Its population is concentrated on the I-25 corridor running north and south through Denver with low population density elsewhere. Recycling collection and processing is limited as are end markets. To make matters worse, slightly more than half of its households use “subscription” services for waste and recycling collection. Those services are funded by the households, not by taxpayers. EPR doesn’t have this experience in other countries. Colorado gets to blaze this trail. The second state to go live poses substantive challenges for producers. The good news for both states? Local governments that pay for recycling collection and processing will see most of those costs go away. Consumers are unlikely to see prices rise, for now. National companies will simply spread their costs among all 50 states. Local and regional producers, unfortunately, don’t have that advantage. As for improved markets, remember that recyclables are and always will be commodities subject to the ups and downs of the economy. I don’t see substantive changes in recycling markets unless the producer group’s members try to manipulate markets to their own advantage. 2025 saw new laws and changes to existing laws. Maryland and Washington became the sixth and seventh packaging EPR states. At the same time, California is rewriting its regulations and Maine significantly revised its law. Some of these changes narrowed EPR’s scope to the dismay of advocates. I’m a member of Maryland’s EPR Advisory Council. We’ve been meeting for a year, discussing the Needs Assessment and now our new law. We have our own unique set of challenges. We also have a big advantage. We can learn from Oregon’s and Colorado’s experiences. Tune in next year to learn how we are progressing. Read on Waste360.