About Us

The History of Maine Recycles Week

Who We Are

The History of Maine Recycles Week

In 1998, the now defunct Maine State Planning Office (SPO) joined 45 other states to celebrate America Recycles Day (ARD). ARD posed as an opportunity for SPO to meet municipal demand for the promotion of recycling at a state level. However, local schools and municipal recycling programs deemed that one day was just not flexible enough to allow for maximum participation.

In response to the feedback, SPO brought together a group of interested people to talk about ARD and how to transform it into an event for Maine. To provide flexibility while still maintaining a sense of unity with the national effort, the group created Maine Recycles Week, a weeklong recycling celebration to be held in conjunction with ARD. 

Maine Recycles Week was held annually, for 12 years, from 1998 until 2010. Although Maine Recycles Week was continuing to grow and was becoming more popular year after year, budget cuts took away the funding that made the celebration possible. 

Now, thanks to the efforts of Agri-Cycle Energy, Casella, ecomaine, Maine Beverage Association, Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Maine Resource Recovery Association, Municipal Review Committee, Penobscot Energy Recovery Company (PERC), and many others, Maine Recycles Week will be celebrated again for the first time in 11 years.

 

STEERING COMMITTEE

Matt Grondin

Matt Grondin

Communications Manager, ecomaine

Matt Grondin has been at ecomaine since 2018 and is responsible for overseeing all communications, outreach, and education programs at the Portland-based waste management organization.  

 

 

 

Jamie Picardy

Jamie Picardy

Assistant Professor, USM

Jamie Picardy is an Assistant Professor within the Food Studies and Honors Programs at the University of Southern Maine. As a curriculum developer, she has established food studies, geography and agricultural literacy programs. 

 

Shelby Wright

Shelby Wright

Eastern Region Manager of Engagement, Casella

Shelby Wright oversees governmental affairs, public relations, and community education and outreach initiatives for the Vermont-based waste management company in Maine.

 

 

 

Travis Blackmer

Travis Blackmer

University of Maine

Travis Blackmer is the Undergraduate Coordinator for the School of Economics and a Cooperating Faculty with the Mitchell Center’s Materials Management Research Team at the University of Maine. Travis has a background in waste characterization, materials policies, and more recently food waste data. 

 

Megan Pryor

Megan Pryor

Environmental Specialist, MEDEP

Megan Mansfield-Pryor is an environmental specialist with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, where she oversees and administers the architectural paint, mercury thermostat, and mercury lamp product stewardship programs and provides outreach, education, and technical assistance to municipalities and businesses to meet specific situational needs in waste reduction and recycling efforts. 

 

 

Newell Auger

Newell Auger

Maine Beverage Association

Newell Augur is a lawyer in Pierce Atwood’s Government Relations & Lobbying Practice Group.  For the past 15 years, Newell has served as legal counsel for the LLC responsible for collecting approximately 80% of the non-alcoholic beverage containers sold in Maine. As such, he has been integrally involved in policy discussions regarding improvements to Maine’s solid waste management system and the bottle bill.

Hank Lang

Hank Lang

Plant Manager, PERC

Henry (Hank) Lang is the plant manager at the Penobscot Energy Recovery Company (PERC), the waste to energy facility located in Orrington, Maine. He has been the plant manager at PERC since 2016 but has been in the operations at PERC since 1987. 

 

 

Rodd Carr

Rodd Carr

Public Affairs Manager, PERC

Rod Carr is the public affairs manager at the Penobscot Energy Recovery Company (PERC), a 25-megawatt waste to energy power plant in Orrington, Maine. Rod has been associated with the facility for over 6 years and in the position, he holds currently for over 3 years.  Rod retired from the Maine State Police after nearly 30 years, has served in the Maine legislature, and served for 20 years on the Lincoln town council.

 

 

Jessica Haviland

Jessica Haviland

Assistant Director, MRRA

Jessica Haviland is the assistant director for Maine Resource Recovery Association (MRRA) a statewide recycling and solid waste management non-profit that works with community run transfer stations to market recycled material. She has served as assistant director since 2018. 

 

 

 

Michael Carroll

Michael Carroll

Executive Director, MRC

Michael Carroll has 20 years of experience in the solid waste industry and joined the Municipal Review Committee as Executive Director for the 115 Maine municipal member non-profit organization in 2019. Prior to joining the MRC, Carroll was the Branch Manager for Fero Waste & Recycling, Ready John & Clean Earth in Saint John, New Brunswick.

 

Mail

1385 Kennebec Rd
Hampden, Maine 04444

Contact Us