Member Spotlight: Ripple Glass |
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This is part of a series of interviews with NRC members. The purpose is to provide insights into materials management programs and best practices of member municipalities, businesses, and service providers.
Founded in 2009, Ripple Glass is a glass processor located in Kansas City, MO. Ripple accepts recycled glass from a nine-state region across the Midwest and brings it back to their facility for sorting and processing. The recycled glass is sent to Owens Corning in Kansas City, MO to be made into fiberglass insulation as well as Ardagh in Tulsa, OK to be made into glass bottles. We spoke with Josh Boyer, Regional Program Manager at Ripple Glass, to get an inside look at how Ripple Glass operates.
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NRC Supports Lancaster Villages Following Trailer Site Closures |
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The City of Lincoln is consolidating its recycling sites from 19 to four or five trailers by the year’s end in response to city budget constraints. The remaining sites will be upgraded to hold more material and the reduced number will ease contamination issues, which can raise recycling costs and lessen the value of the materials.
Nine sites in the surrounding Lincoln communities also will be removed, including Bennet, Davey, Denton, Firth, Hickman, Malcolm, Panama, and Roca. The City of Lincoln has offered to sell the recycling trailers to the communities and is assisting in establishing recycling programs in the respective municipalities.
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The Nebraska Recycling Council has resources to help:
Equipment: NRC manages a state-wide equipment grant, which supports the purchase of recycling equipment up to $20,000 with a scaled cash match or in-kind contribution. For municipalities of less than 5,000 people, there is only a 20% cash match required for the purchase of any recycling equipment. Click here to apply for an NRC Equipment Grant.
Consultation: NRC can consult on best practices in contracting with regional haulers or in building relationships directly with a processing center. Staff can also advise on methods of maintaining a recycling program, communicating with residents, and ways to curb contamination and illegal dumping.
Contact the NRC Program Manager, Leah Meyer at [email protected], to further collaborate on ways to start or maintain your recycling program.
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MRF Contracting for Local Governments |
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The Recycling Partnership released in June a new Guide to Community Material Recovery Facility Contracts to help public recycling programs and MRFs develop transparent, balanced recycling processing contracts that allow each party to navigate volatile market conditions and an ever-changing landscape of consumer packaging. Like all contracts, the best MRF processing contract is one that clearly recognizes and protects the interests of both sides and that results in an agreement that both sides would consider fair.
The guide provides an overview of the MRF contracting process and walks through the 11 most important elements of a MRF contract including: processing fees, revenue sharing, material value determination, acceptable materials mix determination, material audits, material contamination/quality, MRF performance, rejected loads and residue disposal, education and outreach support, contingencies, and reporting and communication.
The Recycling Partnership also led a webinar session on “How to Build a Better MRF Contract” to provide additional guidance as part of The New Normal Webinar series, a free webinar program hosted by Resource Recycling. Watch the recorded webinar HERE.
As Nebraska municipalities are navigating their own “new normal” with recycling in a pandemic, we here at NRC believe this moment can be one of our greatest opportunities for strengthening programs and building more resilient systems for the long-term. Solutions such as contracting, measurement, and education will result in collecting the quality and quantity of recyclable materials necessary for manufacturing and to close the loop for resource recovery.
The New Normal Webinar Series launched in July and continues this month with two more webinars on the topics of keeping materials moving and municipal measurement for recycling. Explore the entire New Normal Series HERE and register for the remaining summer webinar series on August 5th and August 26th.
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Nebraska Recycling Council in David City for Contracted Hauling |
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The Nebraska Recycling Council attended the July 22nd David City City Council Meeting to answer questions on contracted curbside garbage collection and recycling services, which can lower costs for communities while increasing recycling rates. Leah Meyer, NRC Program Manager, shared data on average regional costs and haulers operating within Butler and the contiguous counties.
The board also asked questions on recycling markets, which impacted the suspension of the David City recycling center earlier this year. The volatility of the commodity costs of paper fiber and plastics #1 and #2 this year has put the continuation of the program in question.
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Webinar | Wednesday, August 5th | 1-2:30 PM
Webinar | Thursday, August 13th | 4 PM
Virtual Event | On-Demand | City of Lincoln and Lancaster County Growth Plan
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LB 283 would create a science based, data driven climate action plan to help the people and policy makers of Nebraska address the impacts of our changing climate. Evidence of the need to create such a plan continues to mount. Sign the petition.
Keep Keith County Beautiful has launched a mobile app for volunteers, “KKCB Beach Crew,” now available in Google Play and the Apple App Store.
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