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The NH Recycles Member Services team of Brian Patnoe, Member Services Director, and Steve Bean, Municipal Recycling Advisor, recently spent four hours at the Lancaster Transfer Station. Their goal? To connect with residents and help them with their recycling efforts. Armed with information and a few surprises, they made the day a little brighter for everyone who stopped by. Educating and Rewarding the Community Brian and Steve weren't just there to answer recycling questions - they also came prepared with rewards for those who were "recycling right". They handed out free recycling bins and gift cards worth $50 each from three local...

The Littleton Transfer Station buzzed with an extra dose of positive energy on a recent Tuesday, as two NH Recycles representatives hosted a "Recycle Rights Rewards" event aimed at "catching" residents in the act of recycling correctly and rewarding them for their efforts. The initiative - part of the ongoing Recycle Right North Country campaign - and designed to educate and incentivize proper recycling behavior, was met with a mix of surprise, gratitude, and a healthy dose of curiosity from local residents. NH Recycles' Member Services Director, Brian Patnoe, and Municipal Recycling Advisor, Steve Bean, initially set up a table...

In 2024, NH Recycles was invited to participate in the creation of the Wasted Food Brief for the 2025 NH Food and Agriculture Strategic Plan, published earlier this year. Andrea Folsom, NH Recycles' Education & Grants Manager, served as the brief's lead author, and Reagan Bissonnette, NH Recycles' Executive Director, served as one of the brief's subject matter expert and contributing author. The other subject matter experts included Allison Bussiere , Food Systems Coordinator of Gather ; Cherry Sullivan, Director of Programs for Willing Hands ; and Paige Wilson , Waste Reduction & Diversion Planner for the NH Department of...

Did you know that your annual vehicle registration fee could be helping your town with its recycling efforts? In New Hampshire, a law passed in 1989 (RSA 261:153) allows municipalities to collect a small additional fee during vehicle registration to create a town reclamation trust fund. This fund is specifically designed to help with the costs of collecting and disposing of certain difficult-to-recycle items. How It Works: The Fee Structure Towns can choose to add these fees to vehicle registrations, with the amount depending on the type of vehicle. $5 for heavy vehicles: This includes heavy trucks, buses, and trailers over 18,000...

On a recent visit to Coös County, Steve Bean, NH Recycles' Municipal Recycling Advisor, witnessed firsthand how small, rural communities are making a big difference in recycling by working together. His site visit tour highlighted a strong network of transfer stations and a central recycling hub that helps to streamline the recycling process for several towns. Steve's first stop was the Colebrook Transfer Station, managed by Dave Bunnel. The facility collects a wide range of recyclables, including cardboard, mixed paper, plastics (#1 PETE, #2 natural, #2 mixed color), and steel and aluminum cans. Instead of processing these...

The NH Recycles 2025 Fall Bus Tour has been announced: this year's bus will be traveling to Rutland, VT to tour the Rutland County SWD Material Recovery Facility (MRF)! For years, NH Recycles' Members have requested a MRF tour, but because there are no MRFs in New Hampshire, getting to one is no small feat. For that reason, this year's tour will only have one stop and one BIG tour - the MRF. We will get to see how material comes in, the different ways it gets sorted, and how it's managed and sent to end markets. If you are an operator who works in a community that has single stream recycling, this will be a great opportunity to get...

The 2025 legislative session, which included a new 2-year budget for the state of New Hampshire, is now complete and several bills that passed the House and Senate have been signed into law. We wanted to take a moment to update our members on some important policy and legislative updates that will affect all New Hampshire recycling centers and transfer stations. For ongoing updates on legislative sessions, please refer to our Policy and Legislation Page. 2025 Legislative Updates HB 2 (related to the state budget) passed, which included changes to eliminate the ability of organizations to nominate representatives to the NHDES waste...

The past couple of weeks have been very busy for NH Recycles' Education & Grants Manager, Andrea Folsom, and Municipal Recycling Advisor, Steve Bean, as they have been criss-crossing New Hampshire with a small video recording crew creating three (or possibly more) recycling videos for the Recycle Right North Country campaign . The three videos will follow select recyclables - aluminum cans, glass bottles, and cardboard boxes - from the transfer station on their recycling journey. All three recyclables begin the process at transfer stations in northern New Hampshire and then travel - some farther than others - as they turn into new...

As of July 1st, it is illegal for anyone in New Hampshire - resident, business, hauler, or transfer station (just to name a few) - to throw lithium-ion batteries into the waste stream to end up in a landfill or waste-to-energy incinerator. In accordance with RSA 149-M:27: "No person shall dispose of any wet-cell batteries, lithium-ion batteries, or electronic devices in any solid waste landfill facility or incinerator in New Hampshire." While transfer stations were already diverting and recycling wet-cell batteries (like car batteries) and electronics , diverting lithium-ion batteries is a newer request...but an important one...