Recycling Resources

League of Women Voters^®
of the Upper Valley

NH, VT and New England Information

New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services [NH DES] - Waste Management Division promotes responsible waste management and ensures wastes/regulated materials are properly handled and disposed; conducts prompt remediation to restore contaminated sites to productive use while protecting the environment and public health.
Vermont Agency of Natural Resources - The Department of Environmental Conservation Waste Management Division oversees the use, treatment and handling of hazardous and solid wastes; performs emergency response for hazardous materials spills; issues permits for federal and state programs regulating hazardous wastes, solid wastes, and underground storage tanks, and manages cleanup at hazardous sites under state and federal authorities, including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the Superfund.
Lebanon Landfill: Marc Morgan, Solid Waste Manager, marc.morgan@lebcity.com (603) 298-6498
Greater Upper Valley Solid Waste Management District Located in North Hartland, VT (802)296-3688, e-mail GUVSWD@valley.net. The GUVSWMD is a union municipal district dedicated to providing solid waste management authority, recycling services, and planning to its member towns. The District was chartered in 1990 and currently serves ten Vermont towns. John Hurd is manager. Currently, it is reviewing Proposals For the Construction and Operation of the North Hartland Landfill.
Northeast Recycling Headquarters: Formed in 1981, membership in the NRRA has grown to include over 300 municipalities, individuals, and businesses in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Southern Maine. The 501.c.3 group provides cooperative purchasing programs, educational and networking opportunities, technical assistance, and cooperative marketing programs. It enables small, rural and large urban communities to manage their own recycling programs.
Northeast Recycling Council. Brattleboro VT. This website has a wealth of information, and is worth a visit - includes info on hazardous/medical waste, has links to the programs in New England states, and details of those programs (such as free energy audits for businesses) It has just established a reuse marketplace, the nation's first multi-state Materials Exchange network, to help participants in seven states find alternatives to the disposal of valuable materials.
U Mass, Lowell: Department of Plastics Engineering Dept: This is the only program in US for undergraduate program in plastics engineering, with a faculty of 20. Research areas include : Plastics Product Design, Plastics Process Development, Plastics Materials and Additives, Plastics Mold and Die Design, Elastomers and Rubber, Testing and Characterization, Computer Aided Engineering, Plastics Recycling.
Bonhag Associates: Engineering firm in Lebanon NH, consulting in Mechanical, Electrical, and Energy matters.

Websites

http://www.storyofstuff.org/ an excellent 20-min animated video explaining consumption patterns. Great list of resources / reading list.
http://www.greenreportcard.org/report-card-2009/schools/dartmouth-college FYI
http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/recycle/jtr/econ/rei-rw/rei-rw.htmm official EPA recycling site
http://www.epa.gov/waste/index.htm EPA site on all waste management topics.
http://www.ecocycle.org/ -- creating markets for recycling of all sorts, stopping junk mail, etc.
http://www.zerowaste.co.nz/assets/Reports/CitizensGuide.pdf
http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/132525303.html
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2007/03/16/purdue-promises-biofuels-can-meet-all-us-transport-needs Recent Purdue research on how to capture all carbon for biomass gasification (liquid fuel) 2009 issue has section on trash/recycling/plastics/sludge/zerowaste
http://www.motherjones.com/special-reports/2009/05/waste Mother Jones May/June 2009 series of articles on waste include Bill McKibben, Elizabeth Royte, Susan Strausser etc.

Books

Consumed : How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole, by Benjamin R. Barber (2007)
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. by Richard Louv (2006)
Transitioning to Zero Waste: What Can Local Governments Do Now? by Helen Spiegelman (2006)
Affluenza, by John Degraaf, David Wann, Thomas Naylor, 2nd edition (2005)
Garbage Land: on the Secret Trail of Trash Elizabeth Royte (2005)
Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World, Daniel Imhoff, Sierra Club (2005)
Good Stuff? A Behind-the-Scenes Guide to the Things We Buy, by Worldwatch Institute (2004)
The High Price of Materialism, by Tim Kasser (2003)
Confronting Consumption, Ed.By Thomas Princen, Michael Maniates, Ken Cocoa (2002)
The economics of waste. Richard C. Porter (2002)
Zero Waste, by Robin Murray for Greenpeace Environmental Trust (2002)
Giving Kids the Business: The Commercialization of America's Schools, by Alex Molnar (2001)
The Consumer Society Reader, Edited by Juliet Schor and Douglas Holt (2000)
Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash Susan Strausser (1999) A real history of trash + example, per person tonnage was higher when coal was used to heat buildings!
Stuff: The secret lives of everyday things,by Alan Durning (1997)

AND, Back to the 60's on this Topic:

The Hidden Persuaders, Vance Packard (1957) on the advertising industry - the first of a popular series on sociology topics; followed by The Waste Makers, (1960) that criticizes planned obsolescence, Our Endangered Children (1983), The Ultra Rich: How Much Is Too Much? (1989) and others.
The Affluent Society, J Kenneth Galbraith (1958) criticized the overemphasis on high rates of production as a measure of economic prosperity. He argued that overproduction of consumer goods was harming the public sector and depriving Americans of such benefits as clean air, clean streets, good schools and support for the arts.

Comments, suggestions, questions? Contact our webmaster. Last revised: July 16, 2010 07:47 PDT.