From the Salem Weekly

Marion County residents filled their mixed recycling carts with the expectation that everything inside was put to good use as new products.

But China’s demand last winter that our recyclables not be contaminated with trash revealed the truth: our mixed recycling carts are not a recycler’s gold mine. To find the items that can actually be recycled, you have to sort through a lot of garbage.

AOR Legislative Chair, Pam Peck, provided testimony at the Senate Energy and Environment Committee Hearing regarding recycling markets challenges and how local communities are responding. 

In 2018, Metro commissioned its first-ever economic impact analysis of the greater Portland area's garbage and recycling system.

This report, developed by the Northwest Economic Research Center at Portland State University, describes the numbers and types of jobs supported by garbage and recycling operations in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties, including wages and spending patterns.

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Original Story by Keely Chalmers from KGW, July 2018

photos from Looptworks

A Portland company is taking old Delta Airlines uniforms and "upcycling" them into something new and quite useful.

From NPR. Link to Audio at End of Article.

Thousands of thicker, heavier beer bottles are popping up on store shelves across Oregon as part of the first statewide refillable bottle system in the country, and supporters are hoping it might catch on in other states, too.

The Pacific Coast Collabo

By Hilary Crisan-Heavilin for Recycling Today

Submitted by Heidi Logosz, Sustainability Mgr. & Executive Administrator, Mt. Hood Meadows and Cooper Spur Mtn. Resort

Paul Lepinsky recently shuddered A&P Recycling in The Dalles after forty five years of service. Those who know Paul Lepinsky know that recycling is in his DNA.