Arlington, VA – The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) today announced the six recipients of its 2026 Recycling Awards, recognizing outstanding achievements in recycling, sustainability, public education, organics management, technology, and industry collaboration.
The annual awards honor organizations, facilities, programs and partnerships that are advancing recycling and resource recovery through innovation, measurable results and meaningful community impact. This year’s recipients demonstrate how investments in infrastructure, technology, education, and collaboration are strengthening recycling systems and advancing the circular economy across North America.
“NWRA’s 2026 Recycling Awards recognize what is possible when innovation is paired with investment, collaboration, and a commitment to results,” said NWRA President and CEO Michael E. Hoffman. “These recipients are solving real-world challenges, strengthening recycling systems and finding new ways to recover valuable materials. Their accomplishments demonstrate the ingenuity of our industry and the important role it plays in building a more sustainable and circular economy.”
NWRA is pleased to recognize its 2026 Recycling Awards recipients:
Recycling Facility of the Year:
GFL Montreal-Est Material Recovery Facility, Montreal, Canada – GFL Environmental transformed a site devastated by a 2022 fire into one of Quebec’s most advanced recycling facilities, representing a $95 million CAD investment and serving approximately 1.3 million residents. Officially opened in January 2025, the Montreal-Est MRF delivers major service improvements through its ability to process up to 220,450 tons of recyclables annually, handle roughly 25% of Quebec’s curbside recycling stream, and provide critical processing redundancy that helps ensure uninterrupted service. Innovation is evident throughout the facility, including 17 AI-enabled optical sorters, dual processing lines, advanced film recovery systems, automated quality control technologies, real-time operational data tracking, and highly automated material handling that improves both recovery rates and worker safety. The facility is also the product of a strategic collaboration between GFL Environmental and Éco Entreprises Québec (EEQ), the producer responsibility organization administering Quebec’s extended producer responsibility (EPR) framework, demonstrating how public policy and private-sector investment can work together to modernize recycling infrastructure. Through reduced transportation distances, enhanced material quality, paperless operations, employee-focused workplace improvements, and robust public education initiatives, the Montreal-Est facility is a critical part of Quebec’s evolving circular economy infrastructure.
Excellence in Sustainability Public Education:
Project ReWear: Circular Textile Waste Prevention and Public Education Program – Project ReWear is an innovative public education program that integrates textile waste prevention into everyday clothing donation, resale, and redistribution activities while tracking and communicating the measurable impact of participation. Through initiatives including the Landfill Project, Don8 Project, and WEARhouse Sales, Project ReWear has recorded more than 7,400 transactions, engaged over 3,500 customers, measured nearly 25,000 pounds of textiles, and redistributed more than 1,500 pounds of clothing at no cost. The program has successfully reached a diverse audience of shoppers, donors, families in need, unhoused individuals, and school communities, with growing participation and strong attendance demonstrating its effectiveness in promoting textile reuse and advancing circular economy principles.
Organics Management Facility of the Year:
Circular Services, Southington, Connecticut – Circular Services’ Southington, CT, organics campus represents an innovative, closed-loop approach to organics management that combines the Northeast’s largest food and beverage de-packaging operation with the longest continuously operating anaerobic digester in North America. Through a 2025 acquisition, the company integrated de-packaging, anaerobic digestion, composting, transportation, and soil production onto a single 60-acre campus, enabling packaged food waste to be separated into clean organic material and recyclable packaging while recovering value from both streams. The facility has made significant progress against its performance metrics, with annual processing capacity of 100,000 tons of food and beverage waste and 500,000 cubic yards of leaf and yard waste, enough renewable natural gas production to power more than 800 homes and several municipal facilities, and approximately 5,000 tons of CO₂ emissions avoided each year. The operation also supports 57 local jobs and markets approximately 200,000 yards of compost, mulch, and soil products, including 2.5 million bags, per year. By addressing Connecticut’s challenge of exporting roughly 40% of its waste for disposal, the facility provides a regional solution that keeps materials, economic value, and environmental benefits within the local community while advancing a more circular economy.
Excellence in Recycling Public Education:
Rumpke Waste & Recycling “Building Trust in Our Industry” – The “Building Trust in Our Industry” initiative is a comprehensive public education program designed to improve understanding of recycling and waste management through direct, hands-on engagement rather than traditional outreach alone. At the center of the effort is the Rumpke Education Center, developed in partnership with COSI, along with interactive exhibits at the Cincinnati Museum Center, facility tours, community events, digital education campaigns, and university collaborations. The program achieved significant results in 2025, including 272 recycling facility tours reaching 3,254 participants, 72 landfill tours reaching 1,353 participants, and 106 presentations and events that engaged approximately 20,000 people. Audience reach extended well beyond in-person activities through 972 educational social media posts that generated nearly 2 million impressions, reached more than 1.45 million individuals, and produced over 139,000 engagements. Additional metrics included more than 9.2 million website views, 74,908 recycling-focused page views, a fan club membership exceeding 4,800 participants, and customer email open rates ranging from 65% to 86%. Together, these metrics demonstrate the program’s success in reaching residents, students, educators, municipal leaders, businesses, and community partners while strengthening public trust in recycling and sustainability.
Recycling Equipment Innovator of the Year:
The CP Auger Silo – An automated storage and feed system developed by CP Group addresses a common operational challenge at material recovery facilities: efficiently storing and feeding recyclables to balers. Traditional storage silos can create bottlenecks, contamination issues, underutilized storage space, and time-consuming cleanup when commodity streams change. The Auger Silo replaces this approach with an automated system that meters material in controlled amounts, allowing operators to better manage inventory, maximize storage capacity, and maintain more consistent baling operations. Facilities using the system have reported up to a 30% increase in storage capacity, substantial reductions in partial-bale cleanup and commodity changeover time, and improvements in baler utilization from roughly 70% to more than 90%. These gains translate into higher throughput, less downtime, reduced labor requirements, and improved equipment utilization. CP Group estimates the resulting operational benefits can exceed $700,000 annually per processing line. By addressing everyday processing inefficiencies, the Auger Silo helps recycling facilities operate more productively while improving the quality and consistency of recovered materials.
Game Changer Partnership:
WM & Starbucks, Expanding Cups To-Go Recycling Initiative – The WM and Starbucks Cups To-Go initiative demonstrated how collaboration across the recycling value chain can overcome long-standing barriers to recovering paper beverage cups and polypropylene (#5) cold cups. Recognizing that polypropylene is generated in households at rates comparable to HDPE but recycled at only a fraction of the rate, WM works with Starbucks and organizations including The Recycling Partnership, Closed Loop Partners, and the NextGen Consortium to expand collection opportunities, strengthen end markets, and improve consumer understanding of cup recyclability. Supported by more than $1.4 billion in WM recycling infrastructure investments, the initiative enabled WM to add both paper and plastic beverage cups to its accepted recyclable materials list and support communities in updating local recycling guidelines. The partnership delivered measurable results. Polypropylene cups earned the How2Recycle® Widely Recyclable designation, meaning at least 60% of U.S. households have access to recycling programs that accept these cups. More than two million households gained access in just four months, nearly 150 communities updated recycling guidelines, and a national awareness campaign reached approximately 6.9 million people through media coverage, social media, and stakeholder engagement.
NWRA will recognize the 2026 Recycling Awards recipients during its Industry Conference on January 20, 2027, at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
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ABOUT NWRA
The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) represents the private sector waste and recycling services industry. Association members conduct business in all 50 states and include companies that manage solid, industrial/hazardous, medical, and construction/demolition debris waste, and represent equipment manufacturers and distributors, and a variety of other professional service providers. For more information about NWRA, please visit www.wasterecycling.org.
Contact
Genevieve O’Sullivan
National Waste & Recycling Association
gosullivan@wasterecycling.org
202-731-1812
