Press Release: NRRA turns attention to C&D Debris, an often-overlooked contributor to landfill waste

UPDATE: NRRA's C&D Work to Continue with Subsequent EPA Grant Award for the 2023-2024 year.

Contact: Reagan Bissonnette
Executive Director
Phone: (603) 736-4401 ext. 116
rbissonnette@nrrarecycles.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 3, 2023

NRRA turns attention to Construction and Demolition Debris, an often-overlooked contributor to landfill waste!

EPSOM, NH: The Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA), the largest and oldest cooperative-model recycling nonprofit in the United States, enables communities to manage their own recycling programs, in part, through its recycling education and technical assistance work. With support from the EPA Region 1, New England, 2022 Healthy Communities Grant Program, NRRA has begun work on its Increasing C&D Diversion in Coös County, NH project.

Organizations such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have recently increased grant support for programs aimed at reducing food waste, which according to the EPA makes up an estimated 24% of municipal waste. However, construction and demolition debris, which was also eligible for EPA funding, continues to be an overlooked contributor to landfills.

For example, in 2021 the Mount Carberry Landfill, located in Coös County, NH, landfilled approximately 61 million pounds of food waste^[1]. In that same year, however, they also landfilled over 162 million pounds of construction and demolition debris, more than twice the amount of food waste landfilled in the same year.

Executive Director, Reagan Bissonnette, commented:

Coös County, NH has been disproportionately affected by environmental and public health burdens, with residents living in closer proximity to hazardous waste sites compared to Granite Staters as a whole. The C&D Diversion project is designed to provide fair treatment and meaningful involvement for community participants. Increasing C&D diversion in the area will help ensure that communities will not “bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from” managing C&D debris.

The project will consist of three C&D Summit roundtables for Coös County, NH municipal solid waste facility operators to share best practices to increase C&D diversion and reduce costs, followed by a pilot program in Lancaster, NH to demonstrate techniques to increase C&D diversion and reduce costs. Finally, NRRA will provide hands-on technical assistance for three municipal solid waste facilities to help them increase C&D diversion. The outcomes from the C&D Diversion project will benefit twenty Coös County communities, which are home to over 30,000 residents, and is expected to result in long term behavioral changes at community transfer stations as C&D diversion practices are adopted and become routine. 

# # # # #

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. NRRA 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 our members, we share that information through education and technical assistance. To learn more visit www.nrrarecycles.org.  

^[1] Based on EPA nationwide food waste percentage estimate of 24% of MSW.

This project has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement HC-00A01024 to Northeast Resource Recovery Association. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the EPA.  

Northeast Resource Recovery Association complies with applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity).