NRC announces Sustainable Materials Management Summit

The National Recycling Coalition (NRC), Washington, has announced its Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Summit May 12-13, 2015, at the University of Maryland in College Park. The one-and-a-half day summit is intended to launch a national dialog about sustainable management of discarded materials in the United States and is co-hosted by the Syracuse Center for Sustainable Community Solutions, the NRC says. 

 

“The summit aims to enrich the value and role of sustainable materials management initiatives in communities across the United States,” says NRC board President Mark Lichtenstein. “Our ultimate goal will be to assist in the acceleration of SMM as a method of choice for managing discarded materials through action-oriented strategies intended to promote SMM throughout North America.” 

 

The NRC says the summit will bring together 200 leaders on issues around how natural resources are extracted, used and managed after their initial end of life. NRC says it will develop a national plan based on a facilitated dialogue among a various stakeholders. 

 

Initial supporters of the SMM Summit include ReTrac, the Steel Recycling Institute and the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries. A broad advisory committee that represents all segments of reuse, recycling and composting is helping to organize the event, the NRC says. 

 

The NRC is a nonprofit organization focused on promoting and enhancing recycling in the United States, with a network of more than 6,000 members extending across waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting.