On Friday, July 13, DEQ will open its 2018

There are several grant opportunities available:

Metro's Investment and Innovation grants are available for projects that involve waste reduction, reuse, recycling, composting or energy recovery in the Portland Metro region. Nonprofits and for-profit businesses can apply. 

The Northwest Product Stewardship Council's May 2018 Newsletter has a wealth of great stories, including a feature from Resource Recycling on Sustainable Materials Management in Oregon, CalRecycle Packaging Reform, and more!

Read the snippets here.

Oregon DEQ's Peter Spendelow and ORRA's Kristan Mitchell sit down on OPB's "Think Out Loud" to discuss three things you should never put in your curbside bin. 

Story and Photo from Allison Frost/OPB.

Read more and listen here.

Press Release Issued by the National Recycling Coaltion on May 15, 2018

The China Crisis – Whose Crisis is It?
It is ours.  Recycled materials and trash should look very different from each other, but for years they have been converging in the U.S. 

Although China announced they are suspending the inspection process for US material headed to China, from May 4 through June 4, 2018, it did not have a large impact on the commodities we ship.  Mainly, because we export very little material into China anymore.  The continued trade restrictions and bans on the commodities we produce have all but shut the door for us to send recovered materials to them. 

By: Trevor Nace Apr 25, 2018 @ 11:36 AM 
originally published on Forbes
 

Communities across Oregon  - and around the country - are struggling with contaminated recyclables, which has contributed to a sharp drop in interest in U.S. recycled materials from China, the major market for them. 

Contamination happens when we put things into recycling bins that can't be recycled and/or are dirty (i.e., trash, items with food residue).