Sullivan County wins funding for recycling facility and tourism growth
More than $500,000 is headed to a Sullivan County recycling facility and tourism expansion, targeting a 13% recycling rate and last-place visitor spending.
A Northern Border Regional Commission grant of more than $500,000 will help fund a recycling facility in Sullivan County, while also backing tourism expansion and local growth in Epsom. The money lands in a county where waste handling and visitor spending have both been long-running economic weak spots.
Sullivan County’s recycling action plan says towns recycle only 13% of their waste, far below New Hampshire’s 40% goal. It also says residents are paying among the highest tipping fees in the state, at $91 per ton, a cost that feeds directly into what towns and transfer stations must budget to move trash and recyclables out of the county.
The tourism piece is aimed at a different but equally concrete problem. New Hampshire Public Radio reported that Sullivan County ranks last in the state for visitor spending, and the new federal money is meant to lift that bottom-line ranking by bringing more tourist dollars into the county’s businesses and attractions. For a place where every extra overnight stay, meal, and purchase matters, that shift could affect local merchants, lodging operators, and town centers that depend on outside spending.
The award was part of a larger wave of federal support for New Hampshire. State leaders said New Hampshire received more than $9 million in Northern Border Regional Commission funding for projects across the state, with awards flowing through the Catalyst Program, Forest Economy Program and Timber for Transit Program. The commission is a federal-state partnership that backs community and economic development in distressed counties across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York.
For Sullivan County, the grant connects two needs that have sat side by side for years: lower-cost, higher-capacity recycling infrastructure and a stronger visitor economy. The county’s recycling numbers show how much waste is still being buried or hauled at high cost, while the tourism award targets the spending gap that has left the county at the bottom of New Hampshire’s visitor economy.
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