Recycler of the Year

The Green Team at the Coos Bay Bureau of Land Management was nominated and awarded for starting a more robust recycling program and at the District Office, educating staff on waste prevention/recycling, and offering recycling at some of the popular recreation sites they manage. The Green Team is a group of nine employees who work together to reduce the federal government’s environmental footprint and find sustainable business practices including reducing waste, energy use, and water use.

Terry McDonald spins garbage into housing, jobs, new products.

Science teacher Helen Haberman facilitates the only school-based Master Recycler training program in the state using most of the same presenters and tours sites as the adult class, including Recycling 101 online.

What is Zero Waste? 

Zero Waste is a philosophy and a design principle for the 21st Century. It includes 'recycling' but goes beyond recycling by taking a 'whole system' approach to the vast flow of resources and waste through human society.

Eva Aguilar has gone above and beyond the normal scope of her duties promoting waste prevention  and recycling  to Washington County's Latino community in her role as Bilingual Program Educator.

Over the past year in this role, Eva has vastly expanded engagement with Washington County's Latino community and has spearheaded multiple innovative equity projects.

Nextstep Recycling's mission is to provide technology and training to children and adults who have barriers to employment and education, while protecting the environment and community from hazardous waste.

Since starting in 2002 Nextstep has kept millions of pounds of toxic waste out of landfills and has refurbished thousands of computers and granted them back out into the community and to communities around the world.

Green Plate Pilot Program at Portland International Airport

Central Oregon Residents are asked to be more careful about what they put in recycling bins. On January first, China stopped taking most recycling from western nations, claiming recyclables were contaminated with trash and organic material. 

​AOR's 2016 Alice Soderwall Reuse Award Winner just reached a remarkable landmark: through Cracked Pots' storefront ReClaim It! volunteers have rescued 300,000 pounds (or 150 tons) of materials from the local "dump" for creative reuse that were otherwise destined for the landfill. By weight, that's like saving 30 school buses, 5 baby blue whales, or 300,000 kittens!

This award was given to Delyn Kies in recognition of her many years as a leader in sustainable materials management in Oregon. Delyn helped draft the 1983 Oregon Recycling Opportunity Act, which required cities with populations over 4,000 to provide a minimum of monthly curbside recycling service to all garbage service customers.