NMRC Releases Two Grant Opportunities to Support Recycling

October 26, 2011: The New Mexico Recycling Coalition is pleased to announce a grant opportunity to fund equipment to either improve an existing recycling processing facility "hub" or to purchase recycling collection equipment to outfit "spokes" in New Mexico. Another grant opportunity released will seek communities to pilot the solid waste rate structure, known as Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) in New Mexico. The Rural Recycling Development Program has been designed to increase recycling for underserved and rural communities. This project, hosted by NMRC, is part of the Department of Energy American Recovery and Stimulus Act under the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program.

The Recycling Center Improvement and Spoke Grant is a follow-up to earlier NMRC grant-funding that allowed for the creation of three new recycling hubs and 30+ new spoke collection sites. The recycling center improvement aspect of this grant RFP is designed to assist existing recycling processing facilities to expand or update their equipment to better serve their region. Monies are also available for hubs and spoke communities to apply for recycling collection equipment.

The PAYT Pilot Grant assists communities wishing to use the solid waste structuring model. Communities that have implemented PAYT have seen as much as a 45% reduction of waste entering the landfill - a combination of less waste generated in the first place and increased recycling. The grant will provide start-up equipment and supplies of either collection carts, PAYT trash bags, stickers or tags and plenty of technical assistance to ensure a smooth program.

The deadline to apply electronically is November 30, 2011 by 5:00 PM MST.

Grant RFPs and Applications:

Recycling Center Improvement and Spoke Grant RFP

Recycling Center Improvement and Spoke Grant Application

PAYT Pilot Grant RFP

PAYT Pilot Grant Application

Recycling Collection Containers Signage Request Form

NMRC Launches Pay-As-You-Throw Solid Waste Rate Structuring Initiative

June 2011 - At the June 9th NM Recycling Training, NMRC launched the Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) education initiative with an in-depth presentation on the subject, followed by a series of webinars targeting the 3 solid waste collection types in New Mexico: curbside, dumpster and drop-off.

Check out resources on the benefits of PAYT for your comunity: Click here

NMRC Awards Almost $1 Million to Fund Regional Recycling

2010 Recipients include Torrance County, Otero County & City of Deming

Santa Fe – An early Christmas for two New Mexico counties and one city; the NMRC announces a total of $929,460 in grants and technical assistance to create turn-key recycling centers in Torrance County, Otero County and the City of Deming.  Each entity will receive $309,820 to build regional recycling centers in the “hub and spoke” approach, identified as the preferable method of introducing the needed infrastructure in New Mexico. 

The projects, funded from a Department of Energy grant received by the NMRC as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program, will support the development of recycling infrastructure with a “hub” processing facility and collection equipment for “spoke” communities within rural/underserved areas of New Mexico.

The “hub and spoke” model is a solid waste management system, where a centralized processing facility (hub) provides services to several regionally appropriate collection programs (spokes).  This system is designed to minimize capital and operating expenses, while maximizing financial, environmental and societal benefits of recycling.

The three awardees will receive funding for equipment to process recyclables and related infrastructure, and community drop-off portable recycling collection equipment, as well as technical assistance provided by NMRC. Grantees have agreed to provide long-term operational and financial commitment to ensure project sustainability.   Each funded community will process and market (at a minimum) the following recyclable materials: corrugated cardboard, aluminum and tin cans, mixed paper, and #1 and #2 plastic bottles. 

“NMRC is thrilled to further develop Deming, Otero County and Torrance County’s ability to collect, process and market recyclables for their respective regions and help to overcome recycling challenges associated with low population densities,” noted English Bird, NMRC’s executive director.  “The funded hubs will provide a gateway for small, rural communities to process materials for marketing, while increasing their resource conservation and helping to retain and create jobs.”

NMRC’s overall project will employ the following programs to meet the proposed objectives: 1) launch of a statewide recycled materials marketing cooperative, 2) strategic placement of recycling equipment infrastructure using the “hub and spoke” model, and 3) education and assistance to targeted communities regarding the structure of solid waste rates (known as Pay-As-You-Throw) as a tool to incentivize source reduction and waste diversion activities.

NMRC Expands on the "Hub & Spoke" Regional Recycling Model: Awarding Nearly Half a Million Dollars to Fund Rural Recycling Collection Points

2011 Recipients include Cibola County, Village of Cimarron, City of Deming, Village of Maxwell,
Otero County, San Miguel County & Town of Springer

Recycling is spreading across the State of New Mexico, thanks to $461,905 in grant funds from the New Mexico Recycling Coalition geared to create 25 rural recycling collection points across the Land of Enchantment.  Funding is from a Department of Energy grant received by NMRC as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (“stimulus funds”) being spent to support recycling through the hub and spoke model – a solid waste management system with a centralized processing facility (hub) providing services to smaller surrounding communities (spokes).

The seven awardees will receive funding for recycling spoke collection trailers or roll-off containers, and technical assistance provided by NMRC. Grantees have agreed to provide long-term operational and financial commitment to ensure project sustainability.  

NMRC Executive Director English Bird emphasizes, “Recycling is a critical environmental quality of life issue that should be available to all New Mexico residents, whether they live in urban or rural areas. Recycling in a low population area is a whole different ball game, and we want to do everything we can to support all New Mexico residents who are passionate about conserving resources and recycling.”
 
NMRC’s overall project will 1) launch a statewide recycled materials marketing cooperative, 2) strategically  place recycling equipment infrastructure using the “hub and spoke” model, and 3) educate and assist targeted communities regarding the use of solid waste rates (known as Pay-As-You-Throw) to help incentivize source reduction and waste diversion activities.

Recycling is a proven method of saving energy requiring up to 90% less energy to create materials from a recycled source than from virgin materials.  Recycling is also an economic development tool as well as an environmental tool;  on a per-ton basis, sorting and processing recyclables alone sustains 5-10 times more jobs than landfilling (Institute for Local Self Reliance).

Congressman Pearce Joins Deming Officials for Recycle Center Groundbreaking

U.S. Congressman Steve Pearce joined Deming Mayor Andres Silva, Public Works Director Lawrence Brookey, the Deming Chamber of Commerce, Keep Luna County Beautiful, the NM Environment Department: Solid Waste Bureau and the NM Recycling Coalition to mark construction of the recycling processing facility scheduled to open in fall of 2011. Additionally, the project will fund collection containers at several convenient locations around Deming.

NMRC Technical Projects Director Justin Stockdale explains, “These recycling hubs will capitalize on economies of scales and create an efficient method to collect and process recyclables in rural regions of the state.  Recycling benefits communities in the long-run with increased diversion and revenue generating opportunities.” 

Rural Recycling Development - July 2011 Project Update Available Here

NMRC's Rural Recycling Toolkit Featured on the US Dept of the Interior's Waste Reduction and Recycling Website

The Department of the Interior's "reening the Department of the Interior" website features NMRC's Rural Recycling Toolkit, which was created through funding from a USDA Rural Utilities Program grant. http://www.doi.gov/greening/waste/info_recyclingPracticesRemote.html

Rural Recycling Development - The Hub and Spoke Project

NMRC can provide technical assistance to your community to start or expand recycling. We have several programs available to support your recycling program:

1) At any time, we can provide technical assistance to start or improve your recycling program and develop outreach and education materials.

2) We encourage rural communities to work regionally with neighboring communities, counties, solid waste authorities, tribes, council of governments, university or large facilities, citizen activists and civic groups in order to bring efficiencies and enthusiasm to your recycling program. We can help you bring together interested parties. Starting a citizens recycling group or working with an existing civic group has produced extraordinary results for communities to build awareness and participation in their programs.

3) In the next year, under a Department of Energy (DOE) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant, NMRC will solicit for applications to provide equipment and infrastructure to build out three recycling center hubs and improve existing recycling center hubs. A follow-up grant announcement in the Spring of 2011 will then be targeted to provide smaller, spoke communities with recycling collection trailer or roll-offs to feed into regional hubs.

4) A recycled material cooperative entity will be launched in early 2011 by NMRC that will enable smaller communities to sell their materials cooperatively gaining steadier market pricing, decreasing storage time of material and expanding the types of material they are able to market. If you are interested in becoming a member of the cooperative, let us know!

5) Under the DOE grant, we will also launch a statewide educational and support campaign for communities to evaluate the benefits of Pay-As-You-Throw as a solid waste rate structure in order to encourage more diversion. NMRC will be able to provide interested communities with technical expertise, rate structuring advice, and support city management in the decision-making process.

6) Each January, the NM Environment Department solicits for recycling and illegal dump grant applications to support recycling programs. For more information on this program, contact Tim Gray at tim.gray@state.nm.us or 505-827-0129.

What is Hub & Spoke Recycling?

Successful recycling programs depend on efficient collection and basic processing of materials.  This is achieved through the hub and spoke model, which works by creating regional recycling processing centers within larger communities that serve as “hubs” and encourages smaller communities or “spokes” to deliver their recyclables to these hubs.  Recycling hubs will invest in or solicit grants for capital equipment and infrastructure needed to create and store high density bales of materials that remanufacturing markets require.  Spoke communities will invest in or solicit grants for recycling collection trailers or containers.  These mobile drop-off stations are easily transported to nearby recycling hubs.  The hub and spoke system has been targeted as it provides the most efficient means of gathering and processing recyclables, from both a capital and operational cost perspective.   Hub and spoke systems greatly reduce transportation requirements and increase overall efficiency of program operations.

While most urban areas of the state are well served by municipally or privately-operated processing facilities, the rural nature of the state leaves the majority of NM with little or no access to these services. This shortcoming has been clearly identified by NMRC’s Mapping Project, conducted under a U.S.D.A. Rural Utilities grant, where all solid waste facilities have been documented and mapped. This mapping effort illuminates under-served areas and demonstrates the “holes” in NM’s recycling processing capacity and the areas underserved with processing capacity.  Figure 1 clearly identifies the need for expanded hub and spoke recycling within NM, as there are numerous locations within the state that do not have recycling processing facilities or the existing facility is at capacity and cannot accept more materials.

Figure 1. Status of recycling “hubs” in NM.

The hub and spoke model provides a simple and efficient solution to recycling collection and processing in rural communities. The hub and spoke approach has been proven in several regions of North America.  The best documented case comes from the Canadian Province of Ontario, where provincial government mandated the approach to resolve the inefficiencies created when each community attempted to provide their own independent processing capacity. In rural areas of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming a cooperative effort was formed on this model and has provided a stable recycling system for a broad rural area in these states. The State of Massachusetts took the hub and spoke principle a step further by building a central hub itself and contracting its operations to a private vendor. The Springfield Municipal Recycling Facility serves a dozen or more communities with processing services and has proven to be the cornerstone of recycling efforts in Massachusetts.

Rural Recycling Resources

*Recycling Brochure & Logo Template
NMRC has developed a template that if you fill out we can customize it for your community. Also, available is a custom logo. Contact Sarah Pierpont for either of these services (see below).

Brochure Template click here

Custom Logo

Example of an Excellent Brochure: Santa Ana Pueblo click here

*NM Recycling Training 2011: Hub & Spoke Recycling: The Next Generation
The 2011 Recycling Training & Annual Meeting focused on Pay-As-You-Throw, Getting Quality Material From the Public, Setting Up Household Hazardous Waste Collection and Launching a ReUse Collection Program. All presentations are posted online.

NM Recycling Training 2011 Presentations click here

*NM Recycling Conference 2010: Hub & Spoke, Rolling Towards 33%
The 2010 conference container many presentations directed at small and rural communities. Presentations have been posted online for reference.

NM Recycling Conference 2010 Conference Presentations click here

*Recycling Action Plan Template
Based on NMED's Conmunity Recycling Action Plan, a template is provided to help guide communities to strategically document and plan long-term for their recycling and diversion program.

Community Recycling Action Plan Template click here

Reduce, Reuse Resources
Reducing resource consumption at the front end and reusing is a model that can be embraced in rural communities. Include ideas on how to reduce and reuse in all outreach materials. Consider adding a Reuse "Swap Shop" at the transfer or drop-off stations (see photo below of Santa Ana Pueblo's Swap Shop where they have a simple shed with some shelving set aside for reuse and a container that collects materials for Big Brothers, Big Sisters). A Case Study outlines the challenges to consider with a reuse area and also discusses how to host a Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) exchange area.

Santa Ana ReUse & HWW Exchange Area click here

EPA's Reduce, Reuse Web Resources for Outreach click here

*Rural Recycling Resource Kit
Developed under program work for our USDA Rural Utilites grant, the Rural Recycling Resource Kit was created in June 2009. Target audiences if for anyone managing or planning for recycling in their rural community, or who wants to learn more about what it takes equipment and planning-wise to build a program.

Please visit the following link to view the document.  We ask that you either use this document electronically or if printing, print it double sided.  Visit Rural Recycling Resource Kit to view the entire 120-page document or you may select any of the following specific sections to download in smaller sizes:

NM Solid Waste: Today and In the Future

Waste and the Law

Recycling Step by Step

Commodity Fact Sheets

       Cardboard (OCC)

       Newspaper (ONP)

       Aluminum Cans (UBC)

       Plastics

       Glass

       Motor Oil

       Batteries

       Green Waste

       Scrap Metal

       Freon

       Tires

       E-Scrap

Outreach and Promotion

Case Studies

Buy Recycled

Reporting

Funding Opportunities

.....................................................................................

Want Assistance for Your Community?
Contact Sarah Pierpont, NMRC Deputy Directory, at sarah@recyclenewmexico.com or call 505-603-0558.