The Northeast Recycling Council’s Fall Conference Focused on Two Days of the Next Frontier of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

At the end of the first day, the floor was open for people to discuss any issues they were having, events that were being held and shared ideas and solutions in their own respective regions.

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): The Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) held their first in-person conference since the pandemic, and it was a packed event. After a welcome by Josh Kelly, Materials Management Section Chief for the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources and NERC’s Vice President, he introduced the organization’s new Executive Director, Megan Fontes, who stepped into the role after Lynn Rubinstein retired this year. With a decade of experience in corporate communications, and working in a non-profit organization, Megan is poised to lead NERC into the next chapter. She expressed that she was glad to be joining NERC at a critical time and looked forward to continuing the momentum that Lynn established, emphasizing the need to create more opportunities between public and private entities as well as government agencies.

Next, Josh gave a shout out to the sponsors as well as thanked and recognized benefactors and sustaining advisory members. The Partner Awards this year went to Coca-Cola and Waste Management, which earned NERC’s Distinguished Partnership Award. The Environmental Leadership Awards included Vanguard Renewables and the Lifetime Achievement recognition went to Terri Goldberg, Executive Director of NEWMOA.

 Circular Strategy
Moderator Resa Dimino, Managing Principal of RRS and SignalFire Group introduced the keynote speaker, Jon Smieja, VP of Circularity & Senior Analyst, at GreenBiz, who spoke on “How to Unlearn: An All-of-the-Above Circular Strategy”. He discussed how we need a way to use our resources better. We live in a linear economy (take – make – waste). While waste is not just going to the landfill (recycling, waste to energy, etc.), even some things during these processes will go to waste. Circular economy takes all things out of the trash. We need creativity, hard work and cooperation in order to keep materials in their highest and best use infinitely and in a tight loop. As we get into other areas, it gets tricky since reuse products are passed from one person to another and refurbishment products are passed on to third party. Smieja emphasized rethinking and redesigning how business operate. We want to minimize unacceptable materials going to waste. Circular economy needs to be in all processes—recycling, design, material recovery, refurbish/repair, new business models, reduce material use, and remanufacturing. There are eight major sectors where he sees the most movement: Fashion, Plastics and Packaging, CPGs, Retail, Tech and Electronics, Automotive, Food, and Built Environment. He believes that resale has been overhyped because even though they are seeing uptick in resale platform, it is a small segment in every sector with exception of housing and automobiles. There is also an increase in retail but no decrease in new product sale. In advanced and chemical recycling, he said there is a lot of hype and there are a lot of opportunities in this small space, but it is not quite where it needs to be. Many companies are making packaging commitments but not following through. So, how do you measure circularity? This is where is gets complicated because every state, sector, national, globally has their own set of rules.  For this, you would have to take a step back and rethink how businesses operate; they would have to share data and provide benefits that are greater than their impacts. Almost zero companies are doing that, rather choosing to focus on sustainability. EPR has had varying degrees in success in various parts of the globe, as well as right to repair laws, bottle bills, and tax incentives to build infrastructure. We need to do a better job of management elements at the end of their first use and keep materials in circulation, otherwise we will struggle to get materials to advance that technological work. Finally, everything is staring to get digital, including product passports, blockchain, etc., which could unlock a lot of potential for the Circular Economy but 1) needs to scale, 2) needs to be interoperable, 3) how are we going to use all of this data? He left the audience with two questions: can we move fast enough to save in some of these materials? Can businesses within and across sectors share enough data to create the circular economy?

Food Waste Reduction
Debra Darby, Manager of Organics Sustainability Solutions for Tetra Tech, moderated the next sessions focusing on food waste reduction. First up was Katy Hart, Operations Director for ReFED, who talked about some of the studies that ReFED has done. As of 2019, 35% of food is wasted (just for human consumption), which is about $408B. Food waste happens at every stage of the supply chain—17M tons in farms, 11M tons in manufacturing, 23M tons in consumer facing businesses (70% is plate waste), 30M tons in homes (largest contributor). Uneaten food has an enormous impact on the environment since food accumulates emissions as it moves along the value chain (the relative contribution to lifecycle emissions varies by sector). Current trends that have an impact are rising fuel costs, rising food prices, trucker shortages, pending food shortages, climate change/natural disasters, which can lead to increased motivation and payback. Now, hybrid work environments, load ‘reshuffle’, closing restaurants, gigantic rise in food delivery, and supply chain disruptions have led to an increased chance of waste. In addition, consumer awareness of FLW, consumer angst, COVID, and racial inequity are factors in the opportunity to influence food behavior. She did say that there has been incredible state policy action with 99 bills introduced at the state level, and 28 of those passed (mostly west and east coasts but also starting to see more activity in the middle of the country). There has been a huge uptick in private capital. We are not on track to meet goal of 50% food waste reduction by 2023. We need more partnerships, programs, mentorships, etc.

Next, Alissa Westervelt, Senior Manager of donateNYC at the New York Department of Sanitation spoke about partnerships with food rescue organizations. donateNYC is a program of the DSNY aimed at reducing waste and making it easier for consumers to reduce and reuse. It keeps usable items out of the landfill and works with non-profits. The three primary functions are: 1) Directory: Residents – gives locations that accepts and distributes donations to the general public, this is listed on their online and mobile searchable app, 2) Exchange: Business and Non-Profits only – give and receive durable goods coordinated for pickup and delivery, including messaging and calendar functions, and 3) Food Portal – linked to local law from 2017 to help support food donations. Working with food rescue organizations, the tool was built out in-house. The donateNYC food portal launched in 2019. In their first year, donateNYC moved 80 tons of food. They work with a network of 70 non-profits that accepts ad distribute second hand and surplus goods. Almost 68,000 tons of materials kept out of landfills (food accounted for 55 tons). Other partnerships include the Ellen MacAurther Foundation to build out the user base with international members and the sanitation foundation as their arm to work on public private partnerships. Lessons learned include engaging stakeholders early and often, trying to avoid replicating work already done (dilutes impact and political power), government funding doesn’t guarantee future money for maintenance, cybersecurity concerns can impact development and updates, without policy support the private sector is slow to act. We need the line of communications for the private sector.

Moderator, Chris Nelson, Supervising Environmental Analyst for the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection, introduced the next session, with Adoma Addo, Associate for Center for Biological Diversity, kicking off the presentation with“Waste Words: Consumer Perspectives on the Language of Waste Reduction”. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national non-profit organization. The project team worked on an educational and advocacy campaign, There was concern about waste reduction behaviors and challenges on the individual level, barriers to access, larger structural barriers, driving forces. This prompted a nationwide survey to identify which words people are most comfortable with. Adoma explained that the Center believes in both individual and systemic action and that we need larger shift in production and consumption of products as well as behavioral changes to protect biodiversity. The survey included the following—Key theme 1: Favoring familiarity and approachability; which words should be used to talk about generating and disposal of less waste? – Waste Reduction, Waste Prevention, Waste diversion, Source Reduction, Other. Which phrase best describes reducing waste overall as a lifestyle? – Sustainable Living, Conscious Consumption, Sustainable Consumption, Voluntary Simplicity, Eco-Minimalism, Other. Key theme 2: Environmental Motivations; What motivates you to reduce waste? – To Protect Nature, to Reduce Carbon Footprint, Simply/Organize Life, Reduce Spending Money, Other. Key Theme 3: Frustrations with Single-Use Food Packaging; Which action is most important for reducing waste? – Consumption of Items, Purchase of Unneeded Items, Donate Gently Used Items, Repair Broken Items, Other. What image comes to mind when thinking about the phrase waste prevention? – Reusable Water Bottle, Store Bulk Containers, Secondhand Items from a Thrift Store, Rechargeable Products, Other. Adoma emphasized that there needs to be a combination of individual and systemic changes to move forward.

Next up, Lisa Piering, Recycling Specialist for the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency, talked about what their agency has done to help low income residents and recent immigrants understand what they can do to reduce waste by developing videos and handouts to educate them on better meal planning and date label myths. The material was translated into five different languages – Spanish, Nepali, Somali, Arabic, and Swahili. They developed four handouts with topics in each of the languages with understanding food date labeling, shopping for what you need, tips for managing purchased food to minimize waste. Lisa said they also exhibited at farmers markets, festivals, and other local events in the county and hosted food demonstration workshops (including with the Food Bank of CentralNY). The goal was to engage the audience so that they could use the tips anytime. Lessons learned include engaging with community-based organizations during the grant writing process, adapting to community needs, and getting participant feedback.

Reducing Waste Through Reuse
Moving onto reusable packaging systems, Karen Hagerman, Director of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition for Green Blue, spoke on their guidance for reusable packaging. As an environmental non-profit dedicated to sustainable materials use in society, Green Blue also consists of Sustainable Packaging Coalition, How2Recycle, and Recycled Materials Standard. The guidance was designed to understand goals and assumptions in order to design a more successful reusable packaging program, focusing on the entire lifecycle of a package. A unique consideration includes the transportation and logistics phase – how often the package is functionally used, how far is it going, etc. The report is designed to see where the industry going in this space. She pointed out that industry assumptions for sustainable packaging include lower environmental impact, but that is not always the case. It depends on consumer participation, and a lot of components need to be in place for that to occur. The report addresses excessive consumption (presented as a way to lessen guilt but doesn’t address necessity of the product or underlying system). Motivation is primarily sustainability (there are also other motivations on business and consumer side, user experience and business benefits), displaces single-use plastics and eliminates plastics pollution (reusable options are offered alongside rather than replacing, so they are targeting a different consumer, avoid presenting it as the silver bullet), can be returned like the milkman model (lot of new expectations, standards and ways of life that complicate that model, shouldn’t require behavioral change (however will always require some level of behavior change). What is the goal of reusable packaging? Reduce environmental footprint, reduce consumption and disposable culture, reduce the amount of single-use packaging (while these are all goals, some will overlap). Evaluate where reuse is a good fit. There are always going to be some items that are a better fit, such as foodservice, items bought frequently, get returned often, subscription model in place, etc. Success looks like long term customer engagement, high return rates in practices, lower environmental footprint.

“Massachusetts is Moving Upstream to Grow the Reuse Economy” was a discussion given by Brooke Nash, Branch Chief for Municipal Waste Reduction in the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. She began by pointing out that reduce and reuse is hard to tackle because of decentralized infrastructure;  it is difficult to quantify via traditional waste metrics because there are informal reuse networks, limited tools to quantify environmental benefits, stakeholders are not networked, and there is a multitude of business models and drivers. The MA DEP’s progress on reuse initiatives, includes offering grants to reuse organizations—multi-year grants of $10,000 to $100,000 offered to non-profits and municipalities to build-out infrastructure storage, vehicles, etc. (the vast majority of grant grantees are municipalities). Incentives for municipal reuse programs include swap shops (open year-round), community repair events, single use plastic, building construction incentives through permits or pilot, tool library/library of things, and community zero waste drop off events (bikes, e-waste, textiles, books, etc). With schools and reuse items, there is a huge demand overseas that use desks, lighting, and other material. There is a huge potential there to capture the value. Also, grants for cafeteria conversion to reusables/dishwashers, mass facilities administrators’ association, mass school building authority, ad hoc working group on schools. They also offer one or more micro-grants focusing exclusively on reduce/reuse/repair/share projects—$5,000 for each and they are budgeted for $75,000 this year. Brooke said they are getting ready to put together the DEP/DEH stakeholder dialogue where they will develop best practices for containers, local boards of health, food service businesses, NGOs. Developed Deconstruction Working Group in May 2022 to look at the future of reuse. New waste disposal bans on mattresses and textiles in Massachusetts went into effect November 1. There will be two rounds of grant funding to support collection and processing businesses and nonprofits. Bans will increase reuse through donations of clothing and some portion of mattresses will be reused or refurbished.

Repurposing Materials
Rick Watson, Chief Executive Officer of the Delaware Solid Waste Authority and NERC’s Treasurer introduced the next speakers, Damon Carson, Owner and Founder of repurposedMaterials and Dave Giese, Deconstructionist for Deconstruction Works. Damon’s company works with secondary life materials. He talked about historical repurposing, which includes WWII parachutes in Italy being make into tree skirt for their olive farms to pick up olives, F4 Phantom external fuel tanks dropped in Vietnam, being made into fishing boats in southeast Asia, and also showed more well-known product reuse—wine barrels into planters, old tires used on tugboats, ocean containers into tiny houses, billboard vinyl to waterproof covers, aluminum bleachers (which are usually made into cans) but makes great tread on boat docks or wall décor, parachutes for tanks to shade canopies for theaters and wedding settings. He stressed that when they are looking at materials or products to repurpose, they evaluate it by using the SAVE it strategy: Standardized (is waste stream consistent, much easier to find secondary market), Availability (is it a reoccurring waste stream, building afterlife), Versatility (is it generic, versatile and adaptable), Engineering (attributes and characteristics and engineering – what did the products do in its first life?). Some additional examples that he gave of reuse were products that most would not think of having a second life. For example, a flat railcar (retired because of axles and hitches), while most get melted down, a second life could be a county bridge over a waterway. However, he did explain that just because things are reuse candidates does not mean they are commercially successful. For example, hot air balloon fabric are not reused because of their terrible smell, and jet liner inflatable evacuation slides cannot be reused because FAA rules state that they have to be certifiably destroyed for safety (they don’t want them end up being used on another airline).

Dave Giese spoke about his experience with reused building materials. While salvaging wood construction is nothing new, the hard part of taking apart a house is what to do with the material at the end, especially in the markets. Deconstruction Works tries to pull out everything they can before site is reused. What makes a good candidate for deconstruction? 1) House must be safe to work in, make sure structure will not collapse, 2) It must have building materials that are salvageable. Wealthy materials generally go to lower income areas. There are three ways to get material – donation, sale, and salvage job. Material donated by owner to non-profit reuse store, sell material themselves, or sell material but just for its value. It is critical that reuse/non-profit store gets involved early because they know what they want to sell, what demand is, inventory received. When selling materials to public (pick up or from warehouse or delivery), job is bid, reuse contract includes sales value 50/50 and it works well when homeowner wants to use some of the materials in their home. With salvage, the reuse contractor will sell materials for them, such as lumber, installation, etc. and is paid commission for sales work they do. People must come and pick material. If they don’t have a buyer in a week, they toss it because of storage limitations. So, why you should consider deconstruction? #1 reason is landfill diversion. Deconstruction plays key role in how much lumber ends up in landfill. #2 reason is learning how to deconstruct a home is a great pathway into building trades (plumbing, electricity, etc.). New homes get the highest levels of reuse materials (40%). This space is constantly evolving and learning how to make things more efficient.

At the end of the first day, the floor was open for people to discuss any issues they were having, events that were being held and shared ideas and solutions in their own respective regions. It was a great way to conclude the first day’s events.

Courtesy: www.wasteadvantagemag.com