Santa Fe,
June 1, 2015 – The New Mexico Recycling Coalition (NMRC at www.recyclenewmexico.com) is pleased to announce the 2015 New Mexico Recycling Award winners. Since 2002 NMRC has recognized individuals, businesses and communities that work to reduce waste and support recycling and composting in New Mexico. 2015 Award Winners include:
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· Reunity Resources, Public-Private Partnership in the Diversion Sector of the Year
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· South Central Solid Waste Authority, NMRC Distinguished Member Recognition
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· Steven Porter, City of Raton – E. Gifford Stack Lifetime Achievement Award
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· 2015 Recycler of the Year will be announced at a later date in June
The Awards Ceremony will take place during the 2015 Annual Meeting and Recycling Training hosted by the New Mexico Recycling Coalition on June 3rd in the Ventana Salon at the Albuquerque Museum (2000 Mountain NW) at 10:00 am and Recycler of the Year will be awarded in Albuquerque at a later date in June.
Steve Porter spent a life’s career in solid waste management and diversion. Before he passed away in early 2014, Steve served as the City of Raton’s Recycling Coordinator. His energy and enthusiasm for growing recycling in Raton was immeasurable. In the short time that he served in his position in Raton, the emerging recycling program was able to grow in leaps and bounds, to include Steve writing a long-term recycling plan for the city. Steve was a strong advocate of NMRC programs, to include the R3 Marketing Cooperative and brought Raton on as one of the R3 Coop’s earliest members. An example of Steve’s inspiration and energy was his outreach to the Raton business community asking for their participation in recycling. Steve started attending Raton Chamber of Commerce meetings in order to talk about recycling and before long, he became the President of the Chamber. We remember Steve as a champion of recycling, who helped Raton launch and expand its recycling program. We also remember his inspiring presentations to other New Mexico communities about recycling awareness and growing programs, as he explained, “Anything is possible, folks. You’ve just got to go after it!”
Highlights of awardees include:
- Reunity Resources recently passed its first anniversary of food scraps collections after entering a public-private partnership with the City of Santa Fe eighteen months ago. Reunity Resources acts as the City’s agent to market, educate customers and perform commercial compost collection services. In their first year of collection, they have diverted over 100,000 pounds of food waste from the landfill, which has an atmospheric CO2 equivalency factor of approximately 540,000 pounds. Reunity Resources has also trained over 5,000 K-6 students in compost practices in twelve Santa Fe Public Elementary Schools this year. Beyond the environmental benefit to the public sector, this diversion rate also saved $111,858 in its first year alone. Given their diversion volumes as of December 2014 and the savings given per ton in the recent Solid Waste Assessment, this program saves $40/ton in landfill space, $32/ton saved in operator costs, and $18.50/ton saved in avoidance of new landfill cell construction.
The materials managed by this program are food scraps and biodegradables, including waxed cardboard and paper products. The equipment involved includes 64 gallon rolling collection bins, biodegradable bin liners, educational materials, and a flatbed truck with a lift-gate. The role of the public sector is to grant permission to a private entity to collect food scraps due to the restriction on food waste collection in the City Solid Waste Ordinance. The City also provides rolling collection carts at an affordable lease rate and gathers data from Reunity Resources for long term planning.
The South Central Solid Waste Authority (SCSWA), established in 1992, is an award-winning agency providing solid waste and recycling services to the City of Las Cruces and Dona Ana County, serving a total population of more than 250,000 in southern New Mexico. Additionally, the SCSWA provides services to Sierra County, the Cities of Sunland Park and Anthony, and has plans to expand school recycling programs beyond Las Cruces Public Schools to include the Gadsden and Hatch school districts in the next fiscal year. The SCSWA system integrates solid waste disposal at Corralitos Regional Landfill with waste diversion programs that include single stream recycling, curbside residential collections, household hazardous waste collection, business collections and drop-off opportunities for green waste, glass, white goods and e-waste. The SCSWA Director, Patrick Peck, is the current President of the NMRC Board of Directors and has served in that capacity for the past 2 years. Additionally the SCSWA has assisted in funding various NMRC projects.
The SCSWA has become a model for recycling and diversion innovation in the state, successfully going above and beyond with programs like tire shredding, the recently launched glass collection and crushing program, green waste diversion, and electronics recycling. The SCSWA also actively publicizes recycling and diversion efforts with successful and ongoing public outreach and education that has increased community enthusiasm for diversion, engaging both residents and elected officials, and helped shine a spotlight on partnering agencies in efforts like the Illegal Dumping Partnership.
