Oregon News

Corvallis School District to host sustainability summit

11 Feb 2019

Lunch at Garfield Elementary School in Corvallis was unsurprisingly chaotic Friday, with dozens of kids picking up hot lunches, eating and talking.

But in the center of the room was an island of order as a small team of students and an adult volunteer helped kids sort their compostable items and trash into the appropriate bins. The composting program, which was started in 2015, has significantly reduced the amount of trash the school produces during lunch.

How small cities around the country are fighting to save recycling

31 Jan 2019

Solutions to preserve access and reduce contamination are emerging from municipalities, partners and citizen-led efforts in states such as Oregon, Virginia and New Hampshire.

Hardships caused by China's global recycling industry disruptions have been particularly acute in small U.S. cities and towns over the past year. But in the face of adversity, a number of them have devised solutions to keep recycling programs alive — at least to some degree.

Oregon Bottle Deposit System Hits 90 Percent Redemption Rate

23 Jan 2019

Oregon’s bottle deposit system is recycling more containers than ever before despite major disruptions in global recycling markets.

Last year, Oregon recycled 90 percent of the beverage containers covered by its bottle deposit system. The rate has jumped from 64 percent just two years ago and the total number of bottles recycled reached an all-time high of 2 billion in 2018.

Continue Reading at OPB.

Last Day of CARTM

18 Jan 2019

From the CARTM Newsletter

As many of you know, CARTM lost its contract to operate the transfer station, effective December 31, with only 16 days notice. We spent those 16 days selling, then giving away all the donated merchandise before the facility closed.

Tackling sustainable recycling: DEQ report reflects Klamath County's rural barriers

14 Jan 2019

According to an Oregon Department of Environmental Quality waste generation report, Klamath County recovered 24.3 percent of the 78,171 tons of waste it generated in 2017.

The report, released in December, breaks down “recovery rates” — percentage of waste recycled — by both county and the state as a whole. Klamath County fell below Oregon’s overall 42.8 percent rate, but according to local and state waste experts, Klamath did well despite geographic and economic and barriers.

Oregon Recycling Rate Rises Despite China Export Woes

31 Dec 2018

An end-of-year report from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality shows the state’s recycling rate in 2017 was 42.8 percent, slightly better than the previous year.

Doubling of the bottle deposit to 10 cents was a booster for Oregon’s recycling race. But recycling had setbacks too, including the closure of local paper mills that bought recycled paper and China deciding to cut off recycling imports from the United States.

Glass and paper recycling ticked up, while plastic, electronic and organic waste recycling declined between 2016 and 2017.

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