EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announces new national goal for recycling—increasing the U.S. recycling rate to 50 percent by 2030.

Administrator Wheeler made the announcement at the November 17th opening of the EPA's annual Recycling Summit, saying, "This ambitious national recycling goal will help guide investments and commitments from across the recycling system.”

Peter Wright, EPA Office of Land and Emergency Management Assistant Administrator, added:

“Without national leadership on this issue, recycling has lingered in the low 30 percent range for the last twenty years. The economic and environmental benefits from recycling are clear, and we’ve made a lot of progress, but much more needs to be done to obtain the benefits of increasing the national recycling rate to 50 percent by 2030. We appreciate every organization that has submitted comments on our draft National Recycling Strategy, participated in the recycling stakeholder groups over the last three years, and every organization that has issued a public commitment to continue to help us reach the national goal.”

They shared three key objectives of the draft National Recycling Strategy: 

1. Reduce Contamination in Recycling: Reducing the percentage of the wrong materials in the recycling stream helps ensure clean recyclable materials, such as paper, glass or plastic, can be processed and made into new products. 
2. Make Our Recycling Processing System More Efficient: Making our processing system more efficient will help more of the material that is intended to be recycled get recycled. 
3. Strengthen the Economic Markets for Recycled Materials: Strengthening the economic markets for recycled materials will help manufacturers make more products using recycled materials and encourage demand from consumers for more products that are made with recycled materials.

Read the full EPA press release here.

Press release from the Can Manufacturers Institute website:

WASHINGTON – June 23, 2020 – New research powerfully underlines the value that aluminum used beverage cans (UBC) bring to America’s recycling system.  A study conducted by Gershman, Brickner & Bratton, Inc. (GBB) for the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI), Aluminum Beverage Can: Driver of the U.S. Recycling System, found that the relatively high value of UBCs make them essential to the country’s network of material recovery facilities (MRF). In fact, the report found that without the revenue from UBCs, most MRFs in the United States would not be able to operate without making significant changes that would ultimately affect the cost of recycling to consumers.

The study further shows that MRFs can generate additional revenue from UBCs with investments in aluminum can recycling equipment. This equipment effectively and efficiently captures missorted cans and pays for itself in as short as one year, according to the new study released today. This equipment would increase MRF revenues by catching missorted, highly valuable UBCs.

Read full press release here.

America Recycles Day is this Sunday, November 15th!

America Recycles Day (ARD) is held every year on or around Nov. 15, with event organizers who educate neighbors, friends and colleagues through thousands of events. Now in it's 23rd year, ARD is a Keep America Beautiful initiative, recognized by the US EPA on America Recycles Day 2019, and is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the United States. 

Go to the America Recycles Day site where you can pledge to recycle, view a list of events around the country, or organize your own event.

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US EPA Events

As part of America Recycles Day, the US EPA will be hosting it's America Recycles: Innovation Fair and Summit virtually on November 16–17, 2020. 

See Agenda and Register

The America Recycles: Innovation Fair, held November 16th, showcases recent advances in recycling technology, product development, and materials usage. Exhibitors will display new recyclable products, goods made from recycled content, innovative education and communication methods, or materials that promote more effective recycling, recycling and manufacturing research, and new technologies that are advancing recycling today and into the future.

The America Recycles: Summit held on November 17th, brings together all organizations and individuals who are interested in making a difference in recycling in the United States. EPA plans to announce national recycling goals, provide an overview of its draft national recycling strategy, and facilitate engaging public and private sector discussions on advancing recycling.

We wanted to share with our members, partners, and colleagues, that STAR Executive Director Jordan Fengel will be leaving STAR on November 20th, 2020. He has accepted a position with another organization. His hard work and dedication to STAR, along with his expansive knowledge of the Texas recycling industry, have been an invaluable asset these last nearly three years. We are sad to see him go, but happy for him to have this new opportunity.

The Board of Directors is actively seeking a replacement, and STAR will continue on with its mission of working to advance recycling in Texas. We will keep you informed of STAR's new executive director appointment once determined in the next few weeks.

If you are interested in applying for the position, or know someone who might be, please see the job post here.

Sincerely,

The STAR Team

Congratulations to this Year's Leader Scholarship Recipients!

This year's competition for scholarships to the 2020 Texas Recycling and Composting Summit was open to both high school and college students for the first time ever!

Congratulations to:

Preston Reed, Texas Christian University

Michelle Mokamba, South Grand Prairie Highschool

Irene Reyes, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Margot Shields, Texas State University

Congratulations to the 2020 Texas Environmental Leadership Award Winners!

Recipients will be honored at the Texas Environmental Leadership Awards presentation and ceremony, which will take place virtually during the Texas Recycling & Composting Summit on Wednesday, October 7th, from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m.

See Photos of 2020 Recipients on Facebook

This Year's Winners Are:

Congratulations to the 2020 North Texas Environmental Leadership Award Winners!

Recipients will be honored at the North Texas Environmental Leadership Awards ceremony, which will take place virtually on Thursday, August 13th, 2020, at 1:30 p.m. CST.

STAR North Texas is a regional council group representing STAR, a 501c3 nonprofit whose mission is to advance recycling through partnerships, education, and advocacy for the benefit of Texas. 

These awards recognize true stewards of environmental change in North Texas—individuals, communities, organizations, and businesses developing and maintaining programs involving recycling, composting, sustainable materials management, public outreach, special event recycling, and so much more.

This year, we also had a new category—All-STAR Elected Official—to highlight those in politics who are advancing sustainability and protecting the environment in Texas.

This Year's Winners Are:

Join us Oct. 5-7, 2020, for STAR's first-ever virtual Summit, which will also be—for the first time in over 20 years—a combined conference for the Texas Recycling Summit and the Texas Composting Summit! 

You do not want to miss this event! This year's theme is "Rethinking Recycling," which is now more fitting than ever with the current changes the industry has experienced.

Originally planned as an in-person event, Summit has been moved to an all-virtual event for the safety of our participants, members and staff. STAR will be utilizing a first-class virtual conference platform that enables face-to-face exhibitor and attendee interactions, live and pre-recorded videos, live networking events, tours and more! 

We will be featuring multiple top-notch online tracts and live engaging panels covering the most pertinent topics in the recycling and composting industries. This event will bring together over 300+ industry professionals from schools, cities, businesses, and NGOs to virtually collaborate, educate, and network as we collectively advance recycling and composting in Texas. 

Attendees will get to interact with over 40 exhibitors virtually, join together for a kick-off celebration on Oct. 5th, and STAR will host its annual Texas Environmental Leadership Awards (TELA) live online Oct. 6th! See more details at link below.

Want to be a part of the virtual action? Submit your proposal today to be a presenter or provide a pre-recorded session! Our call for speakers is open until June 19th.

Apply to be a Summit Speaker

EXHIBITOR AND ATTENDEE REGISTRATION WILL OPEN IN EARLY JULY 2020. More details will be coming very soon.

Celebrate the life of Kim Mote with us on Wednesday, June 10th, 2020, starting at 5:30 p.m. CST. 

Friends and colleagues will gather virtually to share memories, photos, and we'll grab our favorite beverage and raise a final toast to a wonderful person.   

If you have a photo(s) of Kim that you want to share with everyone, please send it to Jordan Fengel, STAR ED, at jordan.fengel@recyclingstar.org by June 9th to be included in the slide show. 

RSVP on our events page to join us Wednesday, June 10th, at 5:30 p.m. CST. 

The call for nominations for the 2020 Texas Environmental Leadership Awards is open!

The Awards annually recognize the outstanding contributions of individuals, communities, and businesses for developing or maintaining programs involving recycling and other sustainability efforts across Texas.

Nominations close July 10th, 2020 at 5 pm CST, so nominate your most recognition-deserving recycling colleagues now!

Apply here!