About Us
The History of Maine Recycles WeekWho 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.
Maine Recycles week was held again, for the first time in 11 years, in November of 2021 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. We are back again for another year and hope to continue to highlight recycling and sustainability efforts here in Maine for many years to come.
STEERING COMMITTEE
Newell Augur
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.
Vanessa Berry
Sustainable Maine Program Manager, NRCM
Vanessa connects with people and communities around Maine as a member of NRCM’s Sustainable Maine program. Prior to her role as the Sustainable Maine Outreach Coordinator, Vanessa spent nearly four years working directly with municipalities, schools, and local organizations to provide education and support on their waste reduction and diversion strategies.
Courtney Hafner
Environmental Specialist, Maine DEP
I was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and graduated from Kutztown University with a B.S in Environmental Science. I’ve worked all over the country with different conservation corps positions. I primarily worked in trail work, invasive species removal, and native plant restoration. I finally putting down roots in Maine with my partner, working for the State of Maine in the Department of Environmental Protection.
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.
Bea Johnson
Environmental Educator, ecomaine
Bea joined Ecomaine as an Environmental Educator in July of 2023. Bea has been working in environmental sustainability since she graduated from the University of Maine with a B.S. in Ecology and Environmental Sciences with a minor in Political Science. Bea has a passion for both teaching and the environment and has found her place in educating communities on sustainable waste management.
Ben Moore
Events and Outreach Specialist, MRRA
Ben is pursuing a BA in Environmental Planning and Public Policy with an Honors minor from the University of Southern Maine. He’s passionate about nature and travel, and dedicated to advancing global public policy via impactful communication. In his role with MRRA, he helps to elevate their mission by assisting in membership management, event planning, marketing, and graphic design, all of which have assisted in creating an impactful brand for MRRA.
Jamie Picardy
Associate Professor, USM
Dr. Jamie Ann Picardy is an Associate Professor at the University of Southern Maine. As a curriculum developer, she has established food studies, geography and agricultural literacy programs. Jamie integrates community-engaged, applied research into her undergraduate and graduate courses within the areas of regional seafood/meat value chains, food waste recovery, food security, racial equity, and economic development of food businesses.
Kathryn Oak
Environmental and Solid Waste Coordinator, AVCOG
Kathryn has gained extensive experience in the solid waste industry over the past three decades. Her career began as a heavy equipment operator at Regional Waste Systems (now ecomaine) and Riverside Recycling, managing the composting operation at Riverside Recycling, a CDD landfill, composting operation and transfer station in Mechanic Falls, the City of Portland’s solid waste division, and ecomaine’s materials recovery facility. Now she is working at AVCOG with the intent of sharing this accumulated knowledge with communities who recognize the value of the resources being discarded and want to keep them out of the landfill.
