The Power of Recycling Partnerships

Solid Waste Districts consist of two or more towns coming together to manage their solid waste and recycling. This can be done with or without a shared facility.

The Pemi-Baker Solid Waste District (orange) is the largest Solid Waste District per capita in New Hampshire serving over 28,500 people across 19 towns.

The Coös County Recycling Center (green) and Androscoggin Valley Regional Refuse Disposal District (red) serve the northernmost towns in New Hampshire, collectively serving over 24,100 people across 14 towns, as well as the Unincorporated Places in Coös County.

Shared facilities are smaller formal partnerships, with one facility accepting solid waste and recycling from two or more towns.

This allows towns to share economic resources, including labor. This can lower costs, since two or more towns are operating one facility (opposed to several individual facilities), and increase revenue by combining recycling from several towns to more quickly create full loads of recyclables.

The most common form of host sites and feeder towns is for glass processing and recycling. Towns and municipalities have worked together to divert glass from the solid waste stream.

The Processed Glass Aggregate (PGA) program collects glass from feeder towns to a single host site. The glass, including ceramics, is then crushed and can be used for town road projects.

The "Clean" glass program, collects only of bottles and jars to be recycled into fiberglass.

Let’s take a look at three towns - Wilton, Keene, and Littleton, NH - that have formed both formal and informal partnerships with their neighboring communities.

Wilton, NH is a good example of a town engaged in both formal and informal partnerships.

The Wilton Solid Waste District (SWD) is a formal partnership made up of the towns of Wilton, Greenville, Lyndeborough, Mason, and Temple, NH.

Of the five towns, Wilton has the highest population and is the host for the District's transfer station.

Wilton owns the facility and the District towns split the net operating costs, capital reserve, and an administration fee. The Wilton SWD serves over 10,500 residents. Costs are calculated based on town population in relation to the total population served.

The Wilton SWD was initially formed in the early 1980’s and originally included 6 towns. Currently, it is operating within a 5-year agreement between towns, effective 2019. 

The Wilton SWD has a NH permit-by-notification to operate and accept materials from towns other than Wilton. This permit requires a written agreement with all District towns, which allows for more flexibility.

Aside from managing the towns’ solid waste, the Wilton SWD also has an active recycling committee with at least one representative from each District town.

The Wilton SWD participates in NRRA's “clean” glass program as a feeder town.

Glass collected at the Wilton SWD facility is transported to the host site in Keene, NH.

In 2022, over 178,800 pounds (89.42 tons) of glass was shipped from the Wilton SWD to Keene to be processed in Quebec, Canada and then shipped back to the U.S. to become Fiberglass insulation.

The Wilton SWD works with NRRA to set up their annual Household Hazardous Waste “HHW” summer event, in which all district towns can participate.

In 2022, 181 units were dropped off during their one-day HHW event. For context, one unit of HHW is equivalent to 5 gallons or 20 pounds of HHW.

The District’s dedication to “do the right thing” is clearly publicized on their resident recycling pamphlet:

NRRA and the City of Keene have been partnering since 2009 to provide surrounding communities with a consolidation site for loose recyclables.

This allows smaller communities who do not have the capacity to purchase balers and produce full tractor trailers loads of material to bring loose recyclables to a nearby location.

Keene accepts recyclable items such as commingled containers (which includes aluminum cans, plastics #1 - #2 and steel cans; does not include glass jars and bottles) to be sorted, baled and marketed. 

Keene is also a Clean Glass host site.

Material is delivered, loose, in various ways. Most feeder towns use a 30 to 40 yard open-top rolloff container to deliver their recyclables. The material is then dropped on Keene’s tipping floor.

Cardboard is checked for contaminants and baled in Keene’s horizontal baler (pictured).

Mixed Paper is first checked for contaminants, then goes through a “fluffer” machine, prior to being baled in Keene’s horizontal baler. 

Commingled containers pass along a conveyor belt where Keene’s staff inspects and sorts items into five categories:

1. Aluminum Cans
2. Plastics - #1 PET (soda or water bottles)
3. Plastics - #2 HDPE Natural (milk and water jugs)
4. Plastics - #2 HDPE Mixed Color (detergent bottles)
5. Steel or tin cans

Once separated, previously commingled recyclables are baled in the horizontal baler.

When Keene has enough bales for a full tractor trailer load of each commodity, NRRA arranges for a trailer to pick up the baled material at Keene’s site and deliver it to market.  

NRRA and the City of Keene have been partnering since July 2021 to provide surrounding communities with a consolidation site for “clean” glass. 

Keene accepts clean glass jars and bottles. This glass is deposited by feeder towns into bunkers at Keene until Keene has consolidated 30 tons of material, which is the minimum required prior to sending the glass to be processed, ultimately becoming fiberglass insulation.

 Learn More about NRRA's glass recycling options. 

In 2022:

• 21 communities delivered clean glass in 79 loads over the course of the year to Keene

• 32 loads, each weighing over 30 tons, were delivered from Keene to Canada for processing 

• 1,937,060 pounds - or 969 tons - of glass was processed into Fiberglass insulation 

Littleton, NH has a long history of partnering with surrounding towns both formally and informally. 

Partnerships in Littleton include informal partnerships such as Littleton accepting common recyclable materials, such as aluminum, steel, and plastic; plastic film recycling; and two-stop material pickups.

Littleton is also involved in formal partnerships, acting as an NRRA PGA glass host site, and as a member of the Pemi-Baker Solid Waste District.

In 2016, Littleton changed their NH permit so that they could partner with small neighboring towns more easily.

Littleton now has a Standard Permit, which changed their service area from limited (town residents only) to unlimited. This allows Littleton to accept material from surrounding towns, such as Monroe and Dalton, NH. 

This unique situation allows smaller towns and area businesses access to a larger facility that can recycle more items.

With a Standard Permit, Littleton does not need to have a written agreement from partnering towns, though they do reserve the right to restrict access if needed.

Monroe and Dalton, NH are small towns neighboring Littleton. Because of the size of the towns, marketing their recycling materials individually would be cost prohibitive because of the amount of time it would take to create a full load. Instead, both towns have been able to partner with Littleton to efficiently and economically recycle their materials.

Monroe has a population of 877 residents. Recently, the town made the switch from a single stream facility, where all recyclables were combined, to a source separated facility, where recyclables are separated by type. Monroe now brings their separated recyclables to Littleton via tractor trailer. 

Dalton has a population of 950 residents. They bring their loose recyclable material in gaylords (pictured) to Littleton using a town truck with a flatbed trailer.

Littleton accepts plastic film, such as plastic bags or clean shrink-wrap, to be recycled. Small towns do not create enough volume of material, so instead, they can pool their resources by sending the material to Littleton.

Littleton then further partners with Lancaster and New Boston to combine their bales of plastic film in order to create a full tractor trailer load to send to market.

These plastic film bales are purchased by Trex to be made into plastic lumber and outdoor furniture, such as all-weather benches.

Another informal partnership that helps smaller towns is Littleton's willingness to participate in two-stop pickups of recycled material to send to mills. This includes placing bales of recyclables on a trailer with Lancaster or Whitefield, NH, or Lunenburg, VT.

For example, in 2023, NRRA arranged a two-stop pick-up of steel cans for Whitefield and Littleton. By combining their bales, the towns were able to send out a full load.

Both towns more than doubled their revenue for the material opposed to shipping individual light loads or an individual combination load of multiple types of baled recyclables.

Littleton has also been a host site for NRRA’s Processed Glass Aggregate (PGA) program since 2008.

In 2022, there were eleven feeder towns that sent their glass and ceramics to Littleton. This kept over half-a-million pounds of glass out of the landfill.