July 2004 Newsletter
RA Member Tour and Annual Meeting
Collecting Recyclables at Apartment Buildings
PVC and Bottle Recycling
Do You Have Earth Share of Oregon at Your Workplace?
Need a Place for Old Stuff?
Garbage Rates Drop in Portland
Storing Recyclables
Question of the Month
NEPSI Limbo Continues
Help Wanted: Volunteer Your Graphic Design Skills
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RA Member Tour and Annual
Meeting
Blue Heron Paper hosts tour
This year's annual meeting on August 9 will begin with a tour of Blue Heron's paper facility in Oregon City. Les Joel, Plant Superintendent, will lead a tour of the company's process for receiving bales of recycled paper, combining it with virgin fiber from wood chips, and how these materials are processed into recycled content paper for newspapers and bags. He will also discuss how his process has been impacted by commingled curbside collection of recyclables.
The tour begins at 5:30 p.m. with a presentation on the process of making recycled content paper. After the tour, RA will hold its annual member meeting and Board election at the Blue Heron facility (See the attached RA Board nomination form to nominate someone to the RA Board.)
Following the meeting, tour participants will meet at McMenamins Pub at 102 9th Street in Oregon City for refreshments, discussion, and socializing.
To register for the tour and to receive directions to the Blue Heron plant, call RA at (503) 777-0909 or send an e-mail to info@recyclingadvocates.org by August 1. Members and non-members are welcome.
Collecting Recyclables at
Apartment Buildings
Oregon law and obstacles to recycling
For those who live in apartment buildings, recycling does not happen at curbside. Managers of multifamily dwellings that provide opportunities to recycle set up collection stations on the property.
Recycling at apartment complexes in Oregon faces several key obstacles that can lead to low levels of recycling and high levels of contamination. Multifamily apartments frequently have a high turnover rate. New tenants sometimes do not know if recycling services are available.
Property managers must also take an interest in recycling if apartment recycling is to grow. At some apartment complexes the turnover rate for property managers is high. With a lack of consistent leadership, the rate of recycling at these apartment complexes frequently lags behind other, more successful multi-dwelling properties.
Apartment tenants - unlike homeowners - lack a financial incentive to recycle. Homeowners can decrease the amount of their garbage by recycling more, thereby reducing their garbage bill. Tenants pay for their garbage service in their rent. Those who recycle do not receive a reduction in their rent.
Income and education are typically positively correlated with recycling. Multifamily building tenants usually earn less and are less educated than people living in single family housing.
Lastly, recycling often varies from complex to complex, and the inconsistencies can create a barrier to recycling. Some complexes provide several recycling stations with signage that is easy to understand. Others may provide no station at all or stations with no or poor signage.
Apartment recycling in Oregon law
Recycling at multifamily dwellings is not mandated in Oregon. The Oregon Recycling Opportunity Act of 1983 required cities with 4,000 people or more to provide recycling services to residents who have garbage collection service. The common interpretation of the 1983 law was that landlords of multifamily dwellings could turn down recycling services for their renters.
In 1991, the Oregon Recycling Act allowed cities to require recycling at multifamily dwellings. Cities with a population of 4,000 or more had to implement at least 3 of 8 "menu items," one of which is mandated recycling services at apartment dwellings. The law required cities with 10,000 or more people to implement 4 or 5 of the menu items. According to the Act, if a city opts to require apartment building recycling, landlords of multifamily apartments with five or more units must provide residents with the "collection of at least four principle recyclable materials or the number of materials required to be collected under the residential on-route collection program."
Oregon's landlord/tenant law also addresses recycling in Oregon Revised Statute (ORS) 90.318:
Criteria for landlord provision of certain recycling services. (1) In a city or the county within the urban growth boundary of a city that has implemented multifamily recycling service, a landlord who has five or more residential dwelling units on a single premise or five or more manufactured dwellings in a single facility shall at all times during tenancy provide to all tenants:
(a) A separate location for containers or depots for at least four principal recyclable materials or for the number of materials required to be collected under the residential on-route collection program, whichever is less, adequate to hold the reasonably anticipated volume of each material; (b) Regular collection service of the source separated recyclable materials; and (c) Notice at least once a year of the opportunity to recycle with a description of the location of the containers or depots on the premises and information about how to recycle. New tenants shall be notified of the opportunity to recycle at the time of entering into a rental agreement. (2) As used in this section, "recyclable material" and "source separate" have the meaning given those terms in ORS 459.005. [1991 c.385 §16]"
Some local communities that have chosen to mandate recycling at multifamily dwellings include Beaverton, Portland, and Gresham. The City of Portland plans on implementing new commingled service requirements for apartments in one year.
Next month: How local jurisdictions work to promote greater levels of recycling and lower levels of contamination.
PVC and Bottle Recycling
Still a problem today
Over ten years ago, Recycling Advocates and others asked consumers not to purchase items in PVC bottles, because this type of plastic caused problems for bottle recyclers. The problem continues today, and, in response, the Grassroots Recycling Network (GRRN) recently released a new report detailing the issues. The toxicity issues surrounding PVC have gained quite a lot of press in the last years, but less is reported about the impact of PVC on recycling.
GRRN's report, "Message in a Bottle, The Impacts of PVC on Plastics Recycling" does a good job of explaining why PVC bottles can't be satisfactorily recycled and how these bottles negatively impact the recycling of other bottle resins. The document explains that the plastic bottle recycling industry is more successful than other post-consumer plastic recycling efforts, and can be an indicator of recycling viability for other items of the same resin. The report also strays into PVC use in construction and interior finishes but does not detail what is happening with the recycling of this material (nothing with the exception of some post-industrial, pre-consumer recycling).
In 2002 the plastic bottle market was about half PET (polyethylene terephalate, a.k.a. #1) and slightly less than half HDPE (high density polyethylene, a.k.a. #2). 2.3% of the plastic bottle market was PVC. In the past ten years, less than 1% of the PVC bottles were recycled. A recycling rate high of 2% was achieved during the two years that the vinyl industry pushed the effort, but currently no PVC bottles are recycled. The report goes on to explain that with such a small quantity of PVC bottles their recyclability will never be viable. They do, however, have a negative impact on PET bottle recycling because the two materials can't be adequately differentiated from each other and separated. PET bottles are readily recyclable, with good end markets so long as they are not contaminated with any PVC. A PET bottle generally does not cost more than a PVC bottle, so there is no economic reason not to phase-out PVC bottles.
What can you do about this issue? RA still suggests that you avoid purchasing items in PVC containers (look for #3 on the bottom). Next, you can contact manufacturers that are still using PVC containers and ask them to switch. Lastly, if you do find yourself in possession of a PVC bottle, do not put it into your recycling bin. Read the report at http://www.grrn.org/pvc to learn how to identify PVC bottles, how PVC bottles hurt plastic bottle recycling, and what you can do to get PVC bottles out of the marketplace.
Do You Have Earth Share of
Oregon at Your Workplace?
Help support RA and other environmental groups
Every year, more and more working people in Oregon have chosen to show their commitment by donating to Earth Share of Oregon's 66 local and national member groups through the fall giving campaign. Earth Share's campaign enables Recycling Advocates to reach out to many new audiences and potential supporters across the state. If you'd like your workplace to be a part of this growing trend, we invite you to learn more.
Earth Share works with employers to set up a payroll deduction program through which employees can donate either to Earth Share of Oregon (ESOR) as a whole or can designate their gift for one or more ESOR members. It's simple, convenient and it makes a big difference. In campaigns in over 75 businesses and public agencies, ESOR annually generates well over $600,000 to support environmental organizations that work to protect human health, preserve wildlife habitat and reduce the causes and effects of global warming.
ESOR campaigns have many benefits both for the employer and the employee. Companies can demonstrate their commitment to the community by offering a broader set of charitable choices. Employees have the benefit of supporting work they care about with the convenience of payroll deduction. To find out more about adding ESOR to your company's giving campaign contact Ron Shoals at ESOR: (503) 223-9015 or rrs@earthshare-oregon.org; or visit http://www.earthshare-oregon.org. It's a great way to leverage your own commitment to the earth!
Need a Place for Old Stuff?
Non-profit provides used items to people in need
The Oregon Community Warehouse is a non-profit organization that provides furniture and household items to people in need. Its goal is to help low-income families and individuals improve their quality of life by providing basic items needed to set up a home. The people benefiting from the non-profit's services include women escaping from domestic violence, families and individuals who have been homeless, elderly with limited income, people with mental and physical disabilities, migrant and refugee families, and youth and adults recovering from substance abuse.
Most frequently requested items include beds and dressers, kitchen tables and chairs, bed and bath linens, dishes, glasses, pots, pans, silverware and cooking utensils, and small appliances.
If you are cleaning out your linen closet, reorganizing your kitchen cupboards, want to get rid of furniture or household items accumulating in your garage or basement call the Oregon Community Warehouse at (503) 235-8786. The non-profit has a truck that picks up large furniture items in the Portland Metropolitan area. You can also drop off donations at 2189 NW Wilson on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
For more information, visit the Oregon Community Warehouse at http://www.oregoncommunitywarehouse.org.
Garbage Rates Drop in
Portland
New rates take effect in August
In June, the Portland city council approved a 20 to 25 cent reduction in residential garbage rates that will go into effect in August. According to Commissioner Dan Saltzman, the reduction is due in part to improved recycling habits and increased efficiency in garbage hauling. The rates for the weekly collection of a 20-gallon garbage can will decrease to $16.10 a month and the weekly collection of a 32-gallon can will drop to $18.55 a month. Residents with monthly garbage pick-up will see a drop to $10.55 per month.
Readers respond to June's Question of the Month
Last month, we asked our readers: How do you store your recyclables in your house until they can be collected?
Steve Katz writes, "We store paper in a box and all other recycling items in an adjacent box under the sink. On the day before the weekly collection we transfer the recycling to the yellow boxes, and place them at the curb. Additionally, we store worm food in a used milk container and periodically transfer to the worm bins."
Jeffrey White, editor of the RA Newsletter, laments that his family struggles with a lack of space. "We have a small kitchen and a narrow landing leading to the garage and side door. Currently, we use bags to store recyclables, but this leaves little room for opening the pantry in the landing. We also store kitchen scraps in an old colander in the kitchen sink, which we empty every day in our compost bin." Anyone with space-saving ideas for storing recyclables can e-mail Jeffrey at jeffrey.white@att.net.
Lori Stole of the RA Board writes, "After maximizing reuse potential, we collect paper for recycling in a wastebasket, which we empty into the recycling bin whenever it gets full, every couple weeks or so. Compostable food scraps are collected in a bucket kept under the sink, before adding them to our backyard compost bin. Everything else goes to the garage where we have boxes for both glass containers and for commingled bottles, metal, etc which go to the curbside bins and boxes for deposit containers and recyclable plastic bags, which we take to a retail collection point when they become way too full."
Sharing ideas of how to cut waste can help us all discover new ways to do with less. What is one personal waste cutting action that you would like to share with readers?
E-mail your responses to info@recyclingadvocates.org or call us at (503) 777-0909 and leave a message by June 20.
Do you have a question you would like us to publish? E-mail us your question at info@recyclingadvocates.org
As we reported this past spring, NEPSI held its last meeting on February 10 here in Portland. Participants generally agreed on a system that included a consumer fee (advanced recovery fee or ARF) on new electronics, to be managed by a private third party organization, and that would pay for all collection and recycling services. However, a few manufacturers balked, and the industry group said they would go off by themselves to work out a compromise. We have heard that they have reached a general agreement, but nothing specific has come forward.
It is rumored that we will receive word in September, five months after they originally promised a result. And states are getting impatient. Already two states have passed their own laws, California and Maine, which are very different. This may lead to the worst nightmare - 50 different solutions. So we are all hoping that a compromise will come forward from industry. Stay tuned. (Source: Wayne Rifer, RA Board member)
Help Wanted: Volunteer Your Graphic Design Skills
RA seeks a volunteer for doing layout for the new "State of Recycling Report." For more information, call (503) 777-0909 or e-mail us at info@recyclingadvocates.org.