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Happy Thanksgiving CRA Family! |
Many of us try to express gratitude for the many blessings in our lives all year long. When Thanksgiving comes around our thoughts turn even more to the blessings of family, friends, shelter, and plentiful food. I’d like to take this opportunity to focus on that plentiful food.
Recently, at the 2015 Food Recovery Summit in Charleston, I had the opportunity to learn more about just how much food waste there is in our country and some of the impacts of this food waste. It was staggering! When you hear that we waste up to 30% of the edible food in the US while 14.3% of households suffer from food insecurity at some point during the year it really hits home. All of this valuable food weighs in at an estimated cost of $161 billion. Our food resources are valuable and we must make changes to better use and reduce our waste of these resources.
As we plan our Thanksgiving meal and the meals beyond, let’s all consider how we can, personally and collectively, be a part of the solution to this problem. The CRA will be working closely with you, our partners, and key stakeholders as plans are developed to “accelerate food recovery, find solutions to better utilizing our food resources and ensure we are feeding communities and not landfills.”
On behalf of the Carolina Recycling Associations Board of Directors & Staff, we wish you and yours every blessing of this most special season.

Portions of this message were taken from the Welcome Letter to the 2015 Food Recovery Summit by Mathy Stanislaus, Assistant Administrator, Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, US EPA |
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Lunch, Learn, & Network Fall Series Wrap-up
CRA Hosted 3 Events This Fall with More to Come in Spring 2016 |
This fall CRA’s Education & Outreach Committee has worked to provide three Lunch, Learn, & Network opportunities for recyclers in the Carolinas to learn about recycling opportunities and network with peers. These events were held at EnviroPure in Travelers Rest, SC, Sierra Nevada Brewery in Mills River, NC and Rowan County/PowerHouse Recycling in Salisbury, NC. We send our sincere thanks to the hosts of these impactful events.
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Jona Gallagher addresses Food Recovery with attendees at EnviroPure |
Over 100 recyclers took advantage of these opportunities provided at no charge to attendees. Attendees were pleased with the educational content of the programs, the opportunity to tour these facilities and the networking opportunities provided at each event.
We are already working to schedule more Lunch, Learn, & Network events following the Annual Conference in March. Please share your ideas for programs & tour locations to be considered that will help enable us all to further the mission of advancing waste reduction and recycling in the Carolinas.
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PowerHouse Recycling’s Brett Henderson shows attendees how to wrap monitors for recycling |
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Sierra Nevada’s Sustainability Coordinator Mandi McKay leads attendees through Sierra Nevada’s facility |
Check out more info from the Fall Lunch, Learn, & Network Series |
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Do you have news to share? Would you like to be featured in our Member Spotlight? Contact Jenn at jenn! |
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Register Now!
CRA 26th Annual Conference & Trade Show
Wilmington, NC
March 21-24, 2016
For more information
CRA Manufacturers Zero Waste Conference
Wilmington, NC
March 22-23, 2016
For more information
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