In addition, we are hiring a new Member Services Representative to work with Bonnie and Heather to support our members with cooperative marketing and purchasing, education, and technical assistance in the areas of waste reduction and recycling. Know someone who may be interested in this position?  Please help us find the right candidate by sharing the below position announcement and job description, plus our Facebook post, widely. 

It's a new year, and our newly designed conference will be held virtually over two mornings: Monday, May 10th and Tuesday, May 11th from 8:00 am-noon. We are inviting solid waste and recycling operators and supervisors, department of public works staff, town administrators, recycling committee members, school teachers, school administrators and students. We will offer speakers who are engaging and relevant to current matters faced by the solid waste and recycling industry with time for questions. 

We wanted a conference theme with action and practical knowledge so we chose "Recycling with Results." We will explore how the material you put in the recycling bin travels from your home to the recycling center, then to the mill and what new products are made from it! We plan to offer a variety of workshops, free to our existing municipal members and associate members as of January 15, 2021. Yet-to-be-members will pay one price of $75 (for both days). Dr. Ben Locwin, a healthcare executive and international COVID-19 advisor living in Portsmouth, NH, will be one of our speakers.

The New Hampshire Legislature has begun its 2021 session, and NRRA has prepared a list of bills related to solid waste and recycling. NRRA will periodically provide updates regarding these bills and encourages members to testify on bills relevant to their work. NRRA may testify for some bills to educate lawmakers, but NRRA does not take a position on proposed legislation.  Note that there are two hearings scheduled for the week of February 15: one to establish a solid waste working group on solid waste management planning and relative to compost and one relative to the sale and distribution of polystyrene food service products.  Last updated Feb. 10, 2021. 

State Senators and State Representatives first file what are known as Legislative Service Requests (“LSRs”). An LSR is a simple proposal for a bill submitted by a member of the incoming Legislature that is later drafted into a detailed bill. Then bills are assigned to committees in the House or Senate, depending on which chamber the bill originated in. Next, bills are scheduled for hearings, where members of the public may testify in support or opposition to bills remotely or in writing. The nonprofit New Futures provides a helpful description of the full process of how a bill becomes a law. 

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When possible, all transfer stations and recycling centers should have a floor scale on site. Having your own scale allows you to accurately log and track the weight of your recyclables which ensures accurate payment or invoicing when sending baled material out to various vendors. In some cases, NH the Beautiful may help your facility purchase a floor scale through an equipment grant. If you are interested in getting more information about scale vendors, check out our Scale Vendor Information Sheet.

This NH Dept. of Environmental Services sponsored virtual workshop will cover waste diversion and why its important, how communities can calculate their waste diversion rates, and specific strategies and examples of how New Hampshire municipalities can reduce their waste. Reagan Bissonnette & Bonnie Bethune will present.

Learn More and Register

Imagine buying 5 bags of groceries. On your way out of the store, you dump 2 of them directly in the trash. This is the reality for Americans, who waste roughly 40% of food produced for consumption. School cafeterias are no exception, but it doesn't have to be that way! This recorded webinar will outline the wasted food crisis, model methods for measuring wasted cafeteria food, and provide tangible solutions.

Each recorded Webinar is eligible for 1.0 NHDES training credit. To receive your credit certificate, please notify info@nrrarecycles.org once you’ve watched the webinar. We will need to verify your viewing of the webinar and then we will issue your credit to the email used to sign into the recording.

Our website has a section that houses the NRRA Monthly Pricing Guide as well as many other pricing lists. These pricing lists are only accessible to NRRA Municipal Voting Members. If you are an NRRA Municipal Voting Member and want access to this part of the website, simply visit the site to create your new username and password.

The Fiber market remains stable with a slight increase in revenue for cardboard. Read Bonnie Bethune's full market update for February.

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Do you have a job opening you need to fill or used equipment to sell? Submit it to us at info@nrrarecycles.org and we'll share it on our website and in future issues of Full of Scrap.

In case you missed it, NRRA is working with the City of Keene Public Works Department to help reduce waste through composting food scraps and is looking for residents, businesses and organizations that would like to participate in a free compost pilot program.