Northeast Recycling Council Spring Conference Returns to Pennsylvania for Dynamic Two-Day Discussions on Sustainable Materials Management

Angelina Ruiz • May 29, 2024

Waste Advantage Magazine

The Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) held its Spring Conference from April 30 – May 1 in King of Prussia, PA and offered two days of education, lively discussions, and great networking opportunities. Kicking off the first day of the event, Megan Schulz-Fontes, Executive Director of NERC talked about Earth Day’s focus this year on plastics and how the industry should use this attention from the public to educate and remind the public about the importance of reduction and reuse in addition to recycle, and showcase the amazing work that is being done on materials in addition to plastic. Recycling works best when we see reduction and reuse work together with it. The public is becoming increasingly wary of impacts on their environment and are changing their consumption behavior accordingly. She stressed that regardless of the upcoming results of the November’s election, we need to continue to focus the conversation on the RRR principles and the benefits of incorporating sustainable materials management into corporate strategy and state and municipal policy. Bringing the right people around the table is essential. Schulz-Fontes thanked everyone involved in making the event happen—the development and program manager, senior project manager, board members, committee members, advisory members, sponsors, and attendees. She announced the NERC Annual Fall Conference will be held on October 28-30 in partnership with the Center for Sustainable Materials Management at SUNY ESF in Syracuse, NY.


Day 1: Welcome Remarks and Keynote

Schulz-Fontes introduced Lawrence E. Holley, Director of Bureau of Waste Management for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, who provided the welcome remarks.


Holley thanked NERC for bringing the event back to Pennsylvania and said that the partnership is important. He talked about a study they did recently that showed organics made up most of waste stream, and that recycling processing and capacity is a challenge as collection methods are limited because of access and costs. He pointed out that while source separation has the best marketability, there is no one size fits all. Recycling education needs to be strong to complement your recycling program. He discussed how the future of recycling aligns with DEI, serving everyone while seeing the emergence of different cultures. He explained that at the Department, they have even begun to translate their resources into different languages. PA Dutch in particular is a combination of two languages, and because of this, there is a real need for these resources since there is limited access to internet and other materials. With regards to industry retention, she said that while we cannot compete with the private sector regarding pay, we need to think about how we can make employees feel valued. Holley emphasized the economic and environmental impact the industry has—everything associated with it has value. Don’t count on recycling as a true metric for your program, especially considering the changes taking place and the packaging/EPR programs being developed.


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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.