Established in 1999, the Institution Recycling Network is a cooperative, member-led organization. Its members include colleges and universities, independent schools, hospitals, private corporations, and other organizations from the five New England states and New York. IRN offers several of its programs, including surplus property management and construction and demolition waste management, to clients nationwide, from its headquarters in Concord, New Hampshire and office in Austin, Texas.
The Network was founded on the recognition that most organizations can improve their recycling performance — operationally and financially — by taking advantage of cooperative marketing and purchasing opportunities. Individually, most organizations don’t have the clout to gain the best prices and services in the marketplace. Collectively, they do.
IRN members also benefit from opportunities to share experience and information with other institutions, and from the collective experience that’s flowed through the IRN’s home office. At this point in our history, there’s hardly any recycling situation that we haven’t seen and handled. One call to the Network is all that’s needed to resolve the most complex or unusual recycling issue.
Almost all IRN programs have been developed at the suggestion and with significant input from IRN members. An advisory board includes members from Beth Israel Needham Medical Center, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Dartmouth College, the Emma Willard School, Harvard University, Smith College, and Yale University. The advisory board and individual members provide input that is critical to the planning and implementation of IRN’s recycling initiatives.
The IRN survives by charging a membership fee to each institution that joins the Network, plus a small commission on each transaction we handle.
The Network’s headquarters are at 7 South State Street, Concord, NH 03301. Visit us on the web, send an email to info@ir-network.com, or call our offices at 866-229-1962.
