Research snapshot · Waste · 31 August 2026

Recycling and epr across the country: 68 towns on the record, the pace easing

This page is a snapshot, cut 31 August 2026, of a topic that moves. Below is the shape of the movement, read from the towns' own meeting records, and the way to get a view of it that stays current.

Snapshot taken 31 August 2026, based on 91 dated municipal records flagged as recycling and epr, spanning 68 municipalities across 22 states. The topic moves; a later cut supersedes this page.

What this page is for one topic at state or national scope, told as a story: how it arrived, the shape of its movement, a dated snapshot of a moving record, and the door to a view of it that stays current. If it does not, write to us; that is what changes the next edition.

The story so far

The record starts in California, 17 March 2009. Since then 68 municipalities in 22 states have put the topic on a meeting record, at very different speeds: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont hold 55% of the dated events between them.

The last 90 days put 8 meetings on the record, down from 20 in the 90 days before.

It runs through the rooms where budgets and ordinances are made: Town Council, Significant Activity Reports and Select Board.

The shape of the movement

Dated meetings on the record at this scope, quarter by quarter, and the same 90-day count as a rolling line, whose right-hand point is that number. Counts of documents, never a reading of what they decided.
QuarterMeetingsTownsStates
Sep 2025 to Nov 2025777
Dec 2025 to Feb 202625169
Mar 2026 to May 2026222010
Jun 2026 to Aug 2026 (current)884

a rolling 90-day total, so the right-hand point is that same 90-day count. The busiest stretch was Dec 2025 to Feb 2026, with 25 meetings.

Where it is moving22 states

The same topic at different speeds in different states. A state's name opens its own page where one exists.
StateTowns on the recordMeetings, 90 daysLatest
Maine164 ▲ +33.3%2026-08-10
New Hampshire1012026-06-03
California602026-04-21
Massachusetts52 ▬ +0.0%2026-08-06
Vermont lighter read402026-04-15
Connecticut lighter read402026-02-26
Illinois lighter read302026-01-20
Pennsylvania lighter read302026-03-19
Kentucky lighter read202026-03-05
New York lighter read202026-01-15
Utah lighter read21 new on the record2026-06-23
New Jersey lighter read102025-06-10
Georgia lighter read102026-03-17
Idaho lighter read102024-03-06
Maryland lighter read102026-02-09

And 7 more states on the record, in an account view.

From the record

The most recent documents behind this page, one per town. Each link opens the town's own file.

10 August 2026 · Falmouth, Maine Town Council

the document, on the town's own site Council Work Plan Priorities FY26-27.pdf

6 August 2026 · Fitchburg, Massachusetts

the agenda, on the town's own site Agenda — 2026-08-06

28 July 2026 · Brunswick, Maine Sustainability Committee

the meeting packet, on the town's own site Packet

27 July 2026 · Litchfield, Maine

the document, on the town's own site July 2026

Companies on this record321 companies, 80 documents

Named in the same documents that carry this topic, read from the record itself: the firms designing, building and advising the work, each with where the record places them:
CasellaDeerfield, Durham, Hartford and 2 more
GPCOGFalmouth
ecomaineFalmouth, North Yarmouth, South Portland
Sherwin-WilliamsFlossmoor, Rumford
Casella Waste SystemsDurham
PaintCareAvon, Rumford
HeftySkokie
KarinaKennebunk
Kittery Alternative Transportation Study (KATS)Kennebunk
Mascoma BankHartford
Meals on WheelsKennebunk
REPLENISHCarteret
ShopRite of CarteretCarteret
SMPDCKennebunk
UMaineSouth Portland
Vermont Works for WomenHartford
VLCTHartford
A Family for MEFalmouth
Addison County Solid Waste Management DistrictColchester
Advanced Drainage Systems (WMS)Skokie
Advanced Water SystemsDurham
AJ Waste/CCRTCheshire
AltaraHartford
American Water Works (AWK)Skokie
Andrew Stuart, LLCCamden
Annie’s RestaurantSkokie
apparatus manufacturersHartford
Aqua-AerobicsHartford
Aquarion water companyAlton
Arch Street Task ForceGreenwich

And 291 more companies.

The documents naming each, and the threads they sit in, are the account view. If one of these is you, those are your projects on the record. Ask and we will show you every one, and the towns around them, as they move.

A snapshot of a moving record

Everything above is frozen at 31 August 2026; the topic is not. 10 more events on this topic carry no usable date and are counted, never dated. The counts follow where we read most: a town or a state absent here was not read at depth, and absence is not evidence the topic is absent there. A lighter-read state is not a ceiling; where you care about a region, pointing the system there is the first thing an account changes. How coverage is built, and its known limits: municipalalpha.com/methodology.

How we can tell you about it ongoing

We track this topic continuously; this page is one cut of it, taken 31 August 2026. An account turns the snapshot into a working view: every town and every document behind these counts, the thread on each matter as it develops, word of new meetings as they land on the record, your own states and topics side by side, and the data itself when you want it in a table. The towns above are the taste; what each is actually deciding, funding or stalling is the read an account carries.

Each state's name above opens its own page. Counts and dates are computed from the documents on the record; the topic and its definition are ours. This page carries no subscriber content.

Recycling and epr, across the country

from the towns' own meeting records

Scope

Across the country

Area

Waste

every topic in this area

Towns on the record

68

with a dated document on this topic

States on the record

22

counted from the record

Earliest

17 March 2009

the documents' dates

Meetings, last 90 days

8 against 20 before

dated documents

Snapshot cut

31 August 2026

this page's date

A view that stays current

ask for yours