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NSRA Annual Meeting
On November 21, 2008 NSRA convened for its Annual Meeting. This year we included a series of panels on program development, market conditions and funding. In attendance were 35 representatives from private industry, community and non-profit programs, and other NGO’s. The impetus for these panels was to gather key industry representatives for the purpose of discussing current program activity, market activity, funding and future trends.
Our keynote speaker was Cis Myers. Cis represents the Cooperative Teamwork and Recycling Assistance (CTRA), a Texas based recycling non-profit. CTRA was organized and incorporated in 1994, and is based on the concept of cooperative marketing. The organization’s mission is to provide:
· Cooperative marketing of recyclable commodities
· Promote development of end-markets for recyclables
· Technical assistance and,
· Public education about recycling
The cooperative model they employ is modeled after the work NSRA, Southeast Minnesota Recycling Exchange and Mid-Continent Recycling Association completed in 1994. Her background and speaking style lends itself well to an audience more interested in practical application versus theory or concepts. If you are interested in a copy of the Toolkit give NSRA a call, 800.248.7328.
The first panel, Lisa Wilson, and Lori Erickson, provided background on how they have developed programs that are loosely based on a “hub and spoke” system. Each of these programs reaches out over several communities, serving residents and businesses alike.
The second panel, Mike Foster of Greenstar, Tim of Omaha Paper Stock and Dale Gubbels of FirstarFiber, discussed current market conditions and reasons for the downturn. This, needless to say, was a lively discussion.
The third session was related to funding opportunities. Lisa Beethe of the Nebraska Environmental Trust and Steve Andrews of Nebraska State Recycling Association , discussed the grant funding available in Nebraska, where some of that funding has gone in the past and what the future of funding looks like. Grant funding has been instrumental in developing Nebraska’s recycling infrastructure. Some might say we have peaked and need to explore changes in our funding approach, i.e. where, what and how. As I was preparing material for this session, I returned to some early reading I did on Edward Deming, the father of Total Quality Management (TQM). It was while teaching TQM in Japan, after being spurned by US companies, that he was recruited by Toyota to implement some of his ideas. He taught the Japanese managers how to empower production workers to investigate problems and systematically improve processes. He also taught that teamwork and long term, trust-based relationships with suppliers were far better than adversarial relationships. He emphasized a culture of continuous improvement of both processes and products. A good philosophy to have as we move forward.
A big thank you to Mahoney State Park for our beautiful accommodations and to all of those that made this year's meeting such a huge success.
We'll see you next year!
Need help finding a recycling location near you?
For a complete list of recycling locations in Omaha and (coming soon) throughout the state of Nebraska, see our citizen page. There you will soon find a complete list of locations and materials that can be recycled.
Thank you for recycling!
Fast Facts
Did you know?
The average person produces nearly 5 pounds of trash per day
Americans use an average of 580 pounds of paper per person each year
Recycling a stack of newspaper 3 feet high saves 1 tree
Each ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kW of energy and 7000 gallons of water