NRRA Members Approve Recycling Improvements at Town Meetings
NRRA congratulates three member communities for successfully passing warrant articles at recent town meetings to improve their recycling programs. Our member services team was pleased to provide technical assistance to support these efforts.
The Town of Bristol, NH set up a Sustainability Committee to gather information for the Selectboard to see if it was possible to bring back recycling to their transfer station. Jan Metcalf of the Sustainability Committee said that Bristol stopped single-stream recycling in 2018 due to increased costs. They currently recycle glass, aluminum cans (funds go to a charity), scrap metal, and construction debris. Everything else goes to the Wheelabrator incinerator in Penacook. They are pleased to announce that Warrant Article 18 for $85,000 to purchase a used horizontal baler, skid steer for loading material, construction of a building to house the baler, and storage trailer for cardboard passed at their March 13th Town Meeting. They hope to start with separating out cardboard and plan to bale cardboard, plastics, aluminum cans, and mixed paper in the future. Congratulations to Bristol for working hard on adding to their recycling programs.
Jodi Kercewich from Alstead, NH let us know that Warrant Article 13 for $14,000 to purchase a vertical baler and equipment at the transfer station passed in March as well. We know that you worked hard to make this happen and congratulations to Alstead.
Strafford, NH amended a warrant article at town meeting to increase the appropriation by the cost of a tire storage container and fully disclosed why they were increasing the appropriation. Bonnie Bethune, Member Services Manager at NRRA, was very helpful to Strafford to assess whether this was a cost-effective purchase, according to Linda Pape at the Town Office. Strafford’s Selectboard looked at the short and long-term costs and benefits of renting versus purchasing a tire storage container. Several years ago, they purchased a container for their electronics and that has proved to be a wise purchase. Thank you, Strafford, for looking to the future with your recycling efforts.