2024 Conference Plenary Panels to Help Bring Transfer Stations to the Next Level
For over forty years, NRRA’s Recycling Conference & Expo has been a premier conference focused exclusively on municipal recycling and waste reduction in the Northeast. Hundreds of attendees, exhibitors, speakers and sponsors gather over two days to discuss the tools and skills necessary to build thriving municipal recycling and waste reduction programs in your community.
"Early Bird" registration for the 2024 Annual Recycling Conference is open and encouraged to ensure a spot during the following breakfast plenary panel discussions:
Food Waste Diversion & Composting
Join Jen Heaton-Jones, Executive Director of the Housatonic Resources Recovery Association (HRRA); Rhonda Whittier, Office Manager of the Pelham, NH Transfer Station & Highway Department; and Andrea Folsom, Communications Manager of the Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA) for an introduction to the practical steps for starting a municipal food waste composting program or a food waste diversion program.
Jen will be speaking to HRRA’s experience building a self-sustaining composting system in Ridgefield, CT in 2021-2022. Rhonda will be covering Pelham’s recent experience starting a food waste diversion program with Vanguard Renewables, which converts the food waste into energy via an anaerobic digester. Finally, Andrea will talk about NRRA’s recent USDA grant work to educate solid waste facility operators in NH about food waste diversion.
Moderated by Reagan Bissonnette, Executive Director of NRRA, the session will also explore the next steps municipalities should take when considering how a food waste diversion program would fit with their current community and their transfer station or recycling center set-up if they are considering composting food waste.
Implementing Full Cost Accounting
Full cost accounting has been a tool for municipal transfer stations since it was promoted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the late 90s. Even so, it's a tool that many transfer stations have yet to fully embrace. This breakfast plenary session will explore the importance of understanding the true costs and revenue for municipal solid waste operations by developing a full cost accounting (FCA) model. Attendees will learn why it’s important to have this information and how it can inform and improve their operations. The session features Brian Patnoe, Member Services Manager for NRRA; Meghan Theriault, Director of Public Works for Gilford, NH; and Joan Cudworth, Director of Public Works for Hollis, NH.
Meghan will be speaking to her experience using their full cost accounting model data to justify purchasing a truck scale and increasing staffing at the Gilford transfer station. Joan will share her experience first as a transfer station manager and now as a public works director in Hollis, and how full cost accounting has helped shape their decisions. Finally, Brian will talk about his experience helping towns develop FCA models at NRRA, and his prior experience using data to inform operations in both Littleton and Lancaster, NH.
Moderated by Reagan Bissonnette, Executive Director of NRRA, the session will look at the next steps municipalities can take to develop their own full cost accounting model and what considerations they should take into account once it's been set up.
Register now for the 2024 Annual Recycling Conference to join us at these informative breakfast plenary panels. Explore the full conference program to check out additional workshops covering everything from battery and fire safety, mattress recycling, a virtual tour of a MRF, and much much more!