NRC Convention Preview

The National Recycling Coalition Inc., Alexandria, Va., will hold its 16th Annual Congress & Exposition September 22 through 24 at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, Walt Disney World, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The theme of the convention is "It’s a Small World After All."

There have been a few changes this year to the convention format. For one, pre-Congress workshops have been replaced with more workshop-quality sessions, with the emphasis on providing tools that attendees can take home. Organizers have also added entire tracks devoted to professional development and source reduction, along with sessions on newer, emerging recyclable commodities (such as used tires and oil filters) and financing of recycling programs and businesses.

In total, the NRC Congress will offer more than 35 sessions on the latest issues and trends. As usual, the sessions are grouped into tracks; this year’s tracks include Policy; Market Demand/Development; Source Reduction; Education; Collection and Processing; Business Development; Professional and Organizational Development; Commercial and Institutional; and Futures.

"This year we will have fewer sessions but they will be more focused," says Edgar Miller, NRC’s director of policy and programs.

There are several tours of local recycling operations, including a walk through the 28,000-square-foot, 35-ton-per-day material recovery facility that supports Walt Disney World. In addition, the Federal Environmental Executive (FEE) has once again teamed up with NRC to sponsor the 1997 NRC-FEE Confluence Program. This year’s program is expected to have the most comprehensive representation of federal agencies ever.

To encourage discussion among attendees, this year’s NRC Congress features continental breakfast roundtables. Each table at the breakfast will seat ten and will have a facilitator. Discussion topics include Green Building, Internet and Web Sites, Rural Government Issues and Education, Island Recycling, Extended Product Responsibility, and NRC’s AmeriCorps VISTA projects. There will also be open tables where attendees can devise their own topics for discussion.

An ongoing topic of public debate is the cost of recycling versus its value to society. Several well-known industry experts will debate the benefits of recycling and discuss strategies to improve its long-term economic viability at a National Issues Forum and Roundtable. Speakers include Frank Ackerman, author of Why Do We Recycle? from Tufts University Global Development & Environment Institute, Cambridge, Mass.; Lynn Scarlett of the Reason Foundation, Los Angeles; Jonathan Greenberg of Browning Ferris Industries, Washington; Richard Denison of the Environmental Defense Fund, Washington; Brenda Platt of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Washington; and Edward Boisson from the Northeast Recycling Council, Brattleboro, Vt.