by Cathy Bastin, IRC Representative

Recycling, It's Getting Hotter! was the theme for this year's National Recycling Coalition 20th Anniversary Conference. Set in the southwest's hot spot, Albuquerque, New Mexico, hot is what it was! Over 2000 people from the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico converged on downtown Albuquerque to share success stories, strategies, and camaraderie.

A wide variety of special tours, educational sessions, and roundtable discussions encouraged networking and sharing. In addition, over 200 vendors and exhibitors displayed the latest in waste reduction and recycling products and services. Making the Exhibition Hall complete was the Hall of States Recycling Organizations, at which the Indiana Recycling Coalition's booth was a popular stop! Special credit goes to President Melinda Antell and Executive Director Janet Fox Neltner for organizing the booth as well as all the Indiana volunteers who helped staff it during the conference.

Indiana was well represented at this year's conference in attendance, presentations and awards. Moderating sessions were IRC members Julie Rhodes, Executive Director of ReDO; Emily Nichols, Executive Director of West Central SWMD; and presenting at one of the educational sessions was Melinda Seader of Monroe County. A highlight of the conference was the annual NRC Awards Presentation at which the South Bend, Indiana United States Postal Service was awarded the Outstanding Government Program for 1998! Congratulations to all for jobs well done.

A final highlight was the national America Recycles Day kickoff at the Rally of the States. ARD representatives from each participating state, territory, and Mexico shared goals for this year's campaign to the cheers of conference attendees, media, and school children from the Albuquerque area. Indiana's goal of 100 buy-recycled events and 15,000 pledges met loud cheers! The Mayor of Albuquerque signed the first pledge card, and encouraged all participants to do the same. Everyone left really excited to make this a banner year for Recycling and Buying Recycled.

Fran McPoland, Federal Environmental Executive, made a special announcement to Congress attendees.

On September 14, 1998 in the White House, President Clinton signed Executive Order 13101 for a more aggressive waste reduction policy. The Order includes:

• a requirement to make waste reduction a priority through affirmative procurement
• a required post consumer content of 30% in all applicable areas formation of a White House level Taskforce to oversee and implement the Order
• the creation of a multilevel taskforce to begin to quantify the results of this affirmative procurement
• the implementation of a bio-based program

This Administration has sharpened its focus on the importance of recycling said McPoland.

She also announced the "National Recycling Challenge" to be held in November. The Challenge will present examples of the best practices in recycling, buying recycled, and market development, and hopes to renew federal policy leadership in these areas.

by: Melinda Seader, Monroe County SWMD

It was almost like being at the IRC annual conference. Janet Fox Neltner was present, but MUCH more relaxed. (and she didn't bug me about returning my name tag either!?) Laura Dellinger now representing South Dakota, but still every bit as "Laura" as ever, was in attendance and in full voice. A host of other friendly Hoosier faces lit up the congress crowd like fireflies: Miss Emily of West Central, IRC President Melinda, Recycle Michael of Monroe Co., EcoPartners Liz and Elizabeth and many more.

Attending the National Recycling Coalition Congress was a lot like Indiana's annual conference, but with a much broader range of programs and personalities with whom to share ideas on the mission of waste reduction.

The session at which I spoke was titled "Promoting Materials Exchanges and Reuse" and was organized, moderated and expertly executed by Julie Rhodes, executive director, Reuse Development Organization.

This session included five presenters who had experience in running either a reuse operation or a materials exchange program. My portion of the session covered comprehensive reuse programs in rural environments, specifically the multi-faceted reuse programs of the Monroe County Solid Waste Management District in Bloomington, IN. A slide show was presented covering the reuse projects at each of our district's facilities: a building materials reuse barn at the landfill; paint reuse at the hazardous materials facility; trading posts at our county sites; and a materials for the arts center at our recycling center. A brief overview of a notebook entitled, "Promoting Reuse In your Community," was also presented. (See NewsBrief)

I highly recommend that anyone charged with promoting waste reduction in their workplace or community attend next year's NRC congress in Cincinnati. It is the chance to hear about innovative programs and meet the people who develop and run such projects that I personally find the most important aspect of attending. It is a chance to see beyond the boundaries of your own district or state or region ·if you take the time to attend, I bet you will enjoy the view.