​ReClaim It! was started by Crackedpots. They recognized the need for a place where materials could be rescued from disposal. They created a place where the creative citizens of Portland can find unique materials. ReClaim It! is a nonprofit art and reuse retail store that salvages material from the Metro transfer station (operated by Recology) for artists, homeowners, and DIYers to Reuse, Repair, and Reimagine.

Spending my days amidst can and bottle recyclers, I don’t tend to give as much thought to food. Sure, I try to buy organic. I use my compost bin. I even give leftover scraps to my three backyard chickens. But what about the food that doesn’t even make it our plates? The wasted fruit and veggies that didn’t even have a chance? What about the ugly food?

At the Sustainable Oregon Conference 2016, keynote speaker Jordan Figueiredo stole our hearts by laying out the virtues of Loving Ugly Food. What is ugly food? I’ll let these photos speak for themselves. 

For the first time, AOR partnered with Repair PDX to hold a Repair Café as part of the annual Sustainable Oregon conference. The Repair Café was open to conference attendees and the public. Out of the 28 people who brought items to be fixed, about half were conference attendees. Repair volunteers worked on a variety of items such as coffee makers, fans, clocks, lamps, vacuums, shirts, pants, bags and bikes, successfully mending and repairing 85% of the items they tackled – a truly impressive fix rate!

Repair Cafe, Thursday June 9th, 6pm – 8pm

Don’t miss Thursday night’s Repair Cafe in the Exhibit Hall. This event is hosted by Repair PDX and supported by the City of Portland. Repair PDX formed in 2013 to bring repair events to Portland residents.

You can hang out and chat it up with colleagues and bring the following stuff to get fixed:

Last year's 50/50 raffle was so much fun, we're bringing it back to this year's conference! 

Each ticket is $20, and one lucky winner will take home half of the proceeds of the raffle. The more tickets that are sold, the bigger the pot grows!

There are many options for getting to this year's conference at the DoubleTree Hotel in Portland. Conveniently located in the Lloyd EcoDistrict, the hotel is easily accessed by public transportation via Trimet.

This year's conference will feature several tracks that session themes will follow.

Sustainable Business Track (June 8, 9) – Includes first  session in each of the concurrent sessions. 

This year, the Recycler of the Year awards will be presented during a banquet breakfast sponsored by EFI on Friday, June 10th at the Sustainable Oregon conference. 

During the breakfast, winners will give brief presentations about their award winning work. 

The awards breakfast is included with full conference registration, or you can register to attend just Friday. 

The AOR Sustainable Oregon 2016 Pre-Conference Tours are Wednesday, June 8th from 8:30am - 12:00pm