The Voice - Maryland Recyclers Coalition

Kelly Palmiotto reviews the 2004 NRC Congress. From the opening session, the meeting was loaded with information on how to market recycling. DETAILS

The 3^rd Annual Pulp Fashion Show was held at the NRC Congress & Expo. Participants’ recycled outfits must have been made from at least 75% recycled or reused materials. Some of the creative clothes were made from aluminum cans, colorful HDPE juice bottles, paper, phone books, bubble wrap, and CD-ROMS. Check out the photos. DETAILS

we rely on you to recycle, to buy recycled to close the loop, and for you to get all the environmental benefits that come from recycling. For more information, go to the redesigned website at www.americarecyclesday.org. If you are interested in receiving America Recycles bookmarks and posters, contact James Woods at jwood@friend.ly.net or 410-758-6605.

The Maryland Department of the Environment will be holding the third annual Rethink Recycling Sculpture Contest on November 19, 2004 in celebration of ARD. High school students are invited to create sculptures made of recycled materials or reuse materials that would have otherwise gone to the landfill. The contest and judging event is a great opportunity for celebrating the efforts of the student artists, for media exposure, and for promoting waste prevention to the general public. The Department is recruiting participating schools and is still looking for sponsors of this event. Please contact Kelly Palmiotto at 410-537-3211 or kpalmiotto@mde.state.md.us to sign on as a sponsor or to get your County involved.

On September 12, The North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), The Natural Step, and Nike held an environmental education workshop called “Air to Earth Program.” The program teaches 4^th through 9^th grade students about conservation, reuse and recycling. Air to Earth was created as a tool to tie into Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program but can also be used in coordination with other recycling collection efforts. For more information on the teacher material, video, program, etc, go to www.nikereuseashoe.com (click on NRC partnership - Sign in as user name: guest and password: shoelace).

MRC Members: we want to hear from you! Let MRC know about recent awards, promotions, new programs and other news. This newsletter is intended to be a forum for us to share what news and events are going on in our jurisdictions and the industry, as well as keep you posted about coalition news. In order to make this happen, and have this publication be full and interesting, we need you all to contribute! We would appreciate any information you want to offer . . . perhaps your organization has a newsletter and some of those articles would be fitting for MRC’s e-newsletter, or you’re having an event soon and have a press release prepared. Please send any ideas, information, press releases, and/or event postings to Laura Greaver (email: lgreaver@co.ba.md.us, phone: 410-887-2790, fax: 410-887-2931). Thanks for helping us enrich this publication!

Have you recently prepared a presentation you’re willing to share with MRC colleagues? Or have you heard a noteworthy speaker or been on an interesting facility tour? What topics are of interest to you? We would also like to hear your suggestions for holding more outreach events that would be of interest to our current and prospective members, such as informational forums and/or tours. Your ideas are welcome! Please contact the MRC office or James Wood (email: jwood@friend.ly.net, phone: 410-758-6605).

Upcoming MRC Board Meetings

The next meeting of the MRC board will be held on Tuesday, October 19 at 10:00 am at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center (CBEC) at 600 Discovery Lane in Grasonville, Maryland. Directions to the CBEC can be found at http://www.cbec-wtna.org/directions.htm. The phone number at CBEC is 410-827-6694.

Join us for November's Board Meeting, Tuesday, November 9, at Office Paper Systems in Gaithersburg, MD, at 10 a.m. NRC's President, Ben Walker, will be in attendance.

All MRC members are invited to attend these meetings. For more information, contact MRC Headquarters.

Kevin Stearman, Office Paper Systems

This past June our friend, Kevin Stearman, President, CEO and co-founder of Office Paper Systems, Inc. in Gaithersburg passed away. Those of us who had the privilege of knowing Kevin will remember him as a larger than life individual dedicated to his company, its employees and the furthering of recycling and environmental stewardship. As Kevin's legacy continues on he will be greatly missed.