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2018 Recycling & Solid Waste Awards announced

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County recycling hub brings home New Mexico Recycling Award

The New Mexico Recycling Coalition is pleased to announce the 2018 New Mexico Recycling Awards winners.

Since 2002, NMRC has recognized individuals, businesses and communities that work to reduce waste and support recycling and composting in New Mexico.

The recycling awards were presented on Sept. 25 at the New Mexico Recycling and Solid Waste Conference: Local Actions for Global Markets that took place at the Albuquerque Marriott Uptown.

The conference brought together over 200 individuals working in recycling and solid waste and representing rural and urban municipalities, counties, federal entities, universities, tribes, solid waste associations and businesses.

Topics included best practices in both recycling and solid waste management, such as the reducing contamination at the curb and drop-off centers, development of domestic recycling markets, the evolving composition of recyclables and waste, safety, recycling as strategic planning, landfill gas management and more.

Highlights of Recycling Facility of the Year Winner: North West New Mexico Regional Solid Waste Authority.

This recycling hub in McKinley County, New Mexico is an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-funded hub and spoke system that began in early 2012 and the program kicked off with record high recycling that year.

The recycling center (hub) and landfill at Thoreau is operated by the Northwest New Mexico Regional Solid Waste Authority, which services Cibola and McKinley Counties and is fed by over 20 spoke locations, all of which are staffed to control contamination issues.

NWNMRSWA collects source separated material, but has comingled plastic #1 and #2 plastics, for ease of operations.

Recently, the Solid Waste Authority has added additional collection sites to its program, providing containers to local schools and received a 2016 RAID grant to purchase collection containers for the University of New Mexico’s Gallup campus.

NWNMRSWA is managed by Billy Moore and Gary Ford.

Under their leadership, they have been able to expand their services, secured state funding to build a new building to house their baler, and partner with their neighboring McKinley Paper to develop new relationships/markets for not only their cardboard and mixed paper, but also their plastics.

They have increased the amount of money received for their material over the past year by developing this relationship and continuing to produce high quality bales of recyclables.  This is all despite the current market challenges brought on by China’s recent ban on imported scrap material earlier this year.

The commitment from Billy Moore, Gary Ford and the solid waste authority to provide recycling services to their residents is a key component of their success.

The 2018 Recycling Award winners:

 

  • Diversion Project of the Year – Los Alamos County Environmental Services
  • Recycling Facility Employee of the Year (Non-Management) – Keysha Burton, South Central SW Authority
  • Collaborative Partnership Program of the Year – Chamisal ReUse Center
  • Recycling/Composting Facility of the Year – North West NM Regional Solid Waste Authority
  • Composting Facility Employee of the Year (Non-Management) – Martin Lachuga
  • Recycler of the Year – Duane Kinsley and employees of Sport Systems of Albuquerque
  • E. Gifford Stack Lifetime Achievement Award – Miguel Silva from Las Cruces, NM (posthumously)

 

Your Part

By recycling, you play a critical role in supporting jobs, assisting in economic growth, conserving energy and natural resources, as well as ensuring a higher quality of life for future generations.  It’s your job to “recycle right” – that means only putting items into your curbside or drop off recycling carts that your community accepts.

Plastic bags can be recycled at retail locations.

New Mexico Recycling Coalition

New Mexico Recycling Coalition is a non-profit, member-supported organization with the mission of inspiring New Mexicans to reduce, reuse and recycle.  The organization serves as a recycling advocate working with a diverse group of stakeholders, communities, businesses, schools and grassroots activists to help build sustainable and efficient recycling programs.

To learn more, visit www.recyclenewmexico.com. Visit the NM Recycling Directory to find out what and where to recycle in your community: www.recyclenewmexico.com.  Find out what and where to recycle in McKinley and Cibola Counties at www.nwnmrswa.com.

By Sarah Pierpont 
New Mexico Recycling Coalition Executive Director

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