NRRA receives highly competitive EPA Consumer Recycling Education and Outreach grant to implement a 3-year Recycle Right North Country project
Contact: Reagan Bissonnette
Executive Director
Phone: (603) 736-4401 ext. 116
rbissonnette@nrrarecycles.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 15, 2023
NRRA receives highly competitive EPA Consumer Recycling Education and Outreach grant to implement a 3-year Recycle Right North Country project.
EPSOM, NH: The Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA) has been awarded one of only 25 highly competitive, nationwide Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Consumer Recycling Education and Outreach Grants. NRRA is one of two recipients in New England. NRRA’s three-year Recycle Right North Country project is designed to increase residential recycling rates and recycling participation, and decrease recycling contamination rates for thirty rural communities “north of the notches” in New Hampshire’s North Country. 90 percent of New Hampshire communities are members of NRRA, the oldest and largest cooperative-model recycling nonprofit in the United States.
Through Recycle Right North Country, NRRA will provide education to residents and technical assistance to solid waste operators about community recycling programs. This will include detailed information about cardboard, paper, glass, plastic, aluminum cans, and steel cans. While the project will support all thirty communities in the North Country, NRRA will work closely with select communities to gather data and demonstrate the efficacy of a Recycle Right North Country campaign to increase recycling participation, recycling rates, and resident recycling confidence, while decreasing contamination.
Designed to reach individuals at all levels of recycling participation – from those currently not recycling to those who recycle consistently – both Resident Outreach and In-person Education will connect with residents and visitors in their homes, online, at local events, and at their transfer station. NRRA will also provide “Train the Trainers” programming and on-site technical assistance at transfer stations, along with tools such as an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) generator and development of Full Cost Accounting (FCA) models. These tools will ensure that solid waste operators – the resident recycling education ambassadors within their communities – can provide ongoing resident education well after the project is complete.
Executive Director, Reagan Bissonnette, commented:
We are excited to continue the North Country partnerships we’ve developed over the years, both through our member programs and our recent work to identify opportunities to increase construction and demolition debris recycling. We appreciate the hard work and dedication North Country transfer station operators invest in their community recycling programs. Not only do they manage solid waste and recycling, they prioritize the environment through responsible reduction and reuse. We look forward to supporting their good work to strengthen recycling programs through the Recycle Right North Country project.
NRRA will work with North Country communities to identify opportunities to decrease costs and increase revenue from recycling, which will support the EPA in ‘developing a stronger, more resilient, and cost-effective U.S. municipal recycling system, a key component to a circular economy.’ The project will also advance environmental justice and civil rights by partnering with disadvantaged, rural communities in the North Country to provide free technical assistance, recycling education, and outreach to help address some of the environmental burdens faced by those communities.
Over the course of the Recycle Right North Country project, NRRA will evaluate recycling in the North Country, develop and share recycling education content with communities through online, print, radio, and in-person materials and presentations, and train solid waste operators across the North Country to enhance engagement with and educate residents and visitors. At a culminating Recycle Right Summit, NRRA will share the challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned over the course of the project, including ways to replicate its success with hundreds of other small, rural communities in New England.
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About the Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA)
The Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA) is the oldest and largest cooperative-model recycling nonprofit in the United States. NRRA partners with over 450 municipalities, businesses, and individuals throughout New England to make recycling strong through economic and environmentally sound solutions. NRRA supports many small, rural communities in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. It is one of only a handful of nonprofits in the country that enables communities to manage their own recycling programs by connecting them with end markets for recyclables. Founded in 1981, NRRA has a deep expertise in the recycling markets, and in partnership with its members, NRRA shares that information through education, technical assistance, and cooperative marketing. Learn more at: www.nrrarecycles.org.