The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) announces that it will honor six recycling projects and programs during the NWRA Industry Conference this coming January 21 in a ceremony held on the USS Midway. This year鈥檚 award winners are being recognized for work that meets local needs in innovative ways, demonstrates high standards of effective operations, expands public outreach into new areas, and implements leading-edge technology. A panel of professionals from the waste and recycling industry selected the winners from 37 applications.听听
鈥淓ach year, NWRA honors those projects and programs across the waste and recycling industry that exemplify our shared dedication to innovation and the implementation of technology in support of efforts to successfully capture, reduce, and reuse materials from the waste stream,鈥� said NWRA President and CEO Michael E. Hoffman. 鈥淲ith continued skepticism around how the industry functions, the awards give us real-world examples to help tell the story to elected officials and the public that recycling is real and effective, particularly when supported by behavior change, sound policies based on solid research, and investment in innovation. The 2025 Recycling Award winners are a great example of embracing innovation and creating confidence in the tireless work done by the waste and recycling industry.鈥�
NWRA is pleased to recognize its 2025 Recycling Awards recipients:听
Game Changer/Sustainability Partnership: WM 鈥� Major League Baseball.听
Major League Baseball (MLB) and WM forged a multi-year partnership to elevate sustainability-related efforts across all MLB operations, during flagship events (e.g., All Stars, postseason), and with individual Clubs and ballparks across the U.S. and Canada. In the partnership, MLB works with WM to identify League-wide initiatives ranging across waste, energy, and water management, procurement, travel, community impact, and fan engagement. MLB also provides financial support for WM鈥檚 customized advisory services to individual clubs, including developing strategic and operations plans, optimizing recycling programs, and helping implement new waste reduction and diversion systems. The partnership standardizes tracking and reporting of environmental impact metrics and reporting through the use of a shared digital platform accessible to the League and all 30 clubs.
The partnership exemplifies how sports sponsorship can drive environmental progress and social impact.
Recycling Facility of the Year: Rumpke Recycling & Resource Center in Columbus, OH.听
Rumpke Waste & Recycling鈥檚 $106 million material recovery facility (MRF), launched in August 2024, with long-term goals to meet growing regional recycling needs, expand recycling capabilities, increase recycling efficiency, and drive the circular economy, while providing transparent metrics. The Recycling & Resource Center processes 11 types of recyclables and achieved impressive milestones in its first year, with almost 175,000 tons processed; a processing rate of more than 65 tons per hour, 90 percent operational runtime; and a recycling recovery rate of more than 98 percent, significantly reducing residue sent to disposal. More than 80 percent of the processed material is delivered to Ohio-based manufacturers, boosting local jobs and the Ohio economy.
To support its goals, the facility also accommodates space for on-site AI research in conjunction with The Ohio State University, as well as a 3,000 square foot Education Center and 150-foot tour platform for hosting tours and guests. During its first 12 months of operation, Rumpke hosted more than 100 tours for 2,000 guests.
Organics Management Facility of the Year: Generate Upcycle 鈥� Cayuga Digester and Biogas Plant.听
Generate Upcycle revitalized an abandoned, inoperable manure digester in Augburn, NY, transforming it into North America鈥檚 only organics facility with a custom-built food waste depackaging system. The Cayuga Digester and Biogas Plant converts 90,000 tons of organic waste per year into 150,000 million Btu of renewable natural gas and 20 million gallons of nitrogen-rich organic fertilizer. With this recovery, the facility avoids the release of more than 57,000 metric tons of CO2emissions. The MRF receives and depackages 45,000 tons per year of packaged food waste and highly contaminated source-separated organics. In addition to separating the organic content for processing, the MRF recovers 8,100 TPY of cardboard, plastics, and metals for recycling.
Construction & Demolition Recycling Facility of the Year: WM-Nashville C&D Recycling Facility.听
In 2023, almost 267,000 tons of construction and demolition (C&D) debris per year 鈥� about 97 percent of the total C&D debris generated in Davidson County, TN 鈥� was landfilled, according to the City of Nashville. Landfills serving the region were nearing capacity, finding it increasingly difficult to permit expansions. The WM-operated hand-sort C&D recycling program had limited capacity and was accepting material only from projects seeking LEED certification. It became a priority to find a solution to increase recovery, cost-effectiveness, and participation in C&D recycling programs. WM invested $18 million to build the first automated C&D debris recycling facility in the state. The 52,000 square foot, automated recycling facility is designed to handle 1,200 tons per day of mixed loads of C&D debris including metal, concrete, wood, and C&D fines. The facility completed scale-up in the first quarter of 2024. In the remaining months of 2024, it processed more than 100,000 tons of material, of which nearly 50 percent was recovered for reuse.
WM also entered into a three-year commitment with Tennessee State University to provide research grant funding and scholarships to students to explore alternative uses for difficult-to-recycle C&D fines.听
Excellence in Recycling Public Education: OCWR鈥檚 EcoChallenge Curriculum: Enhancing Sustainability and Benefitting Youth
With changes in California law related to organic waste recycling, Orange County, CA, Waste & Recycling (OCWR), and the Orange County Department of Education identified a need to teach the 鈥渨hy鈥� and 鈥渉ow鈥� of organics recycling through the schools. The partnership developed the EcoChallenge program in 2022 to translate the state recycling mandates into age-appropriate K-12 lessons and actions. EcoChallenge lessons (offered in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese to align with county demographics) increase in complexity as students age 鈥� beginning with an Allison Apple compost adventure for kindergarteners to analysis of climate science and designing food recovery programs by high school. Student participation has increased each of the first two full years: from 7,500 students in 2023 to 12,247 students in 2024. The next phase of the EcoChallenge program begins in 2026 and will include an option for field trips to OCWR鈥檚 landfills and recycling facilities, exposure to industry career paths, and new curriculum topics like renewable energy from landfills and zero-waste lifestyles.
Recycling Equipment Innovator of the Year: Van Dyk Recycling Solutions and Greyparrot AI.
The Greyparrot Analyzer system uses AI to identify more than 111 waste/recycling categories in U.S. and European material streams. By mounting Greyparrot camera units on material recovery facility (MRF) conveyor belts and capturing images of the passing recyclables, MRF owners and operators gain real-time data analyzing 99 percent of the materials processed, including each object鈥檚 material, mass, value, and potential emissions. The collected insights contribute to enhanced recovery, greater purity, more cost effectiveness, and increased revenues. Van Dyk Recycling Solutions has mounted Greyparrot AI systems in seven U.S. MRFs to date, including NWRA鈥檚 2023 Recycling Facility of the Year Murphy Road Recycling (a USA Hauling subsidiary) in Enfield, CT. Greyparrot has a global customer base including 70 percent of the market share for the European waste sector. In 2024, Greyparrot Analyzer units helped divert more than 125,000 tons of recyclable materials back into the circular economy. Most recently, Greyparrot partnered with Closed Loop Partners to assess the availability of food-grade polypropylene (PP) in U.S. MRFs.
The 2025 NWRA Recycling Awards recipients will be recognized at a January 21 Awards Dinner on the USS Midway, held as part of NWRA’s 2026 Industry Conference on January 19-21, in San Diego, California.听