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On September 25th, nearly 40 NRRA Member Solid Waste Facility Operators, along with some NRRA staff, headed out on the Annual Fall Bus Tour, this time focused solely on composting in the Granite State. The tour began with a visit to the composting operation at WorkSong Fam in Hopkinton, NH, where residents can bring their food scraps free of charge to be composted and used on site. We then continued to New London, where they ran a successful pilot program and now collect food waste at their municipal transfer station and send it through Renewal Compost - a commercial composter. Finally, the tour ended in Lebanon, where food scraps...

Welcome to the 43rd NRRA Annual Meeting! All NRRA Members are cordially invited to join the trustees and staff of NRRA for the Annual Meeting on Wednesday, November 13th from 9am - 11am at the NRRA Offices. Following the Annual Meeting there will be a closed meeting of the NRRA Board of Trustees and NRRA Staff from 11:30am-1:00pm. This important event allows us time to reflect on the past year - hearing from our Board President and Treasurer on the status of the organization. We will then have the opportunity to enjoy a panel discussion focused on transfer station safety with local experts. Finally, we will celebrate this year's...

The Lancaster, NH Town Hall is a neat building full of surprises - from the wonderful auditorium and town offices, to the upstairs space used by the local Free Masons, it's a great community space! On a recent visit, NRRA learned of another fantastic resource that combines reuse and community support. In the basement of the Lancaster Town Hall, there are neat rows of clothing, shoes, and household goods ready for community members in need. Run by Waypoint as their North Country Regional Office, gently used clothing and home goods are diverted from being thrown away, sorted, and then offered to 700-1000 individuals in need every year...

This fall, NRRA will be wrapping up the year-long Next Level Recycling project focused on composting and food waste diversion with a bus tour of composting sites in New Hampshire. Food waste accounts for 24% of municipal solid waste, and while food scrap composting has become easier in NH with changes to municipal and commercial composting regulations, many communities are still in the beginning stages of contemplating how to divert their food scraps. This bus tour will start with a visit to the composting operation at WorkSong Fam in Hopkinton, NH, where residents can bring their food scraps free of charge to be composted and used...

We are excited to announce that Andrea Folsom, NRRA's Communications Manager, has been accepted as a member of the Leadership New Hampshire Class of 2025. Leadership New Hampshire is a statewide program whose mission is building a community of informed and engaged leaders. Andrea will participate in a 10-month program with a cohort of 38 other associates from across the Granite State who hold leadership positions in the private, nonprofit, and public sectors. As the Communications Manager of NRRA, Andrea oversees all NRRA communications, including education and outreach. She writes and speaks extensively about recycling and waste...

Do you love recycling? Are you looking for an impactful way to give back to your community? Then read on! The Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA) is seeking new members to join its Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees is responsible for overseeing the financial and strategic priorities for NRRA. Board members also serve as an important source of information and feedback for NRRA’s executive director on how NRRA can best serve its municipal members. Board members must be a member of NRRA, either through a municipal voting membership or an associate membership. Joining the NRRA Board of Trustees is a great way to stay...

More than 125 people from across Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont joined Thriving Communities Technical Assistance (TA) Providers and federal agencies as part of the Federal Interagency Thriving Communities Network convening at St. Anselm College Institute of Politics earlier this week. NRRA Communications Manager, Andrea Folsom, attended the event on behalf of NRRA to gather additional resources for and share the challenges faced by NRRA's Municipal Members - including the need for more solid waste infrastructure funding for all NH municipalities and cumbersome grant application and reporting requirements - with the federal...

At the NH Solid Waste Working Group’s June meeting, members heard presentations about mattress and battery extended producer responsibility laws by Daniel McGowan of the Mattress Recycling Council and Todd Ellis of Call2Recycle. NRRA once again welcomed the SWWG to its office in Epsom. Mattress EPR Dan McGowan shared that Connecticut, Rhode Island, and California have mattress recycling programs, and Oregon will have one starting in 2025. A user fee is added to every mattress sold in those states to fund the program. The fee in Connecticut is $11.75 and in Rhode Island it is $20.50 for each mattress sold. The fee is based on both...

The application period for this job has closed. Thank you for your interest! About Us: 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. As 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, NRRA supports small, rural communities across New Hampshire, Vermont...

Did you know... Not all hot water heaters are made the same. While the majority of hot water heaters can go straight into your scrap metal, some of the newer ones have a heat pump. These are usually called hybrid hot water heaters. These hybrid hot water heaters have a condenser (like an air conditioner) that makes it more energy efficient. BUT these also contain refrigerant and should be placed with your other items like refrigerators and air conditioners so it can be properly drained. In some cases, these contain more refrigerant than a refrigerator! HINT: The easiest way to tell is to look for the fan at the top. If it has a fan...