Recycling on OPB Mon a.m. 12/15

Quick summary of this post's points for those in a Major Hurry:

Bear eCycling in SE Portland is the latest local victim of the crashing recyclables market (they are closed as of last Saturday 12/13/08) We wish Oso well, and thank him for his valiant efforts in this area. (His progeny Free Geek is still going strong however, see below. And Far West can and does still take electronics).

The local and national market for recyclables is tanking along with the economy, BUT, you should not presume to know what can/can't be processed and divert things to them to the garbage/landfill vs recycling yourself. (It's better to let the processors and handlers take care of this - they are designed and economically motivated to keep as much out of the landfill as possible and will). I.e, keep using your local curbside/apartment recycling systems as usual (and correctly, no bags!) until your hauler or Metro actually tells you otherwise. Trust me, we'll know if/when that happens - it'll be on the news. Meanwhile, reduce!, reduce! reduce as much as possible (consumption), then reuse and recycle to help with this.

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Long version/narrative (for those with time to read more):

I was both excited and chagrined to wake up (late!) to a lively discussion of recycling in Portland on OPB's (91.5 FM) "Think Out Loud" onthe radio this morning (Monday 12/15/08), a locally produced show that discusses a variety of topics of local interest. This morning's discussion happened to be on the recent crash in the recycling market (local and national - and we are still doing much better of than other parts of the nation, btw), which confirmed a lot of my suspicions about what all we can and can't recycle just now, tho I confess I missed the first half, so do not have all my facts at hand just now. (I'm going to try to re-listen to it on their website, and paw through the ensuing blog discussion there as well to remedy this, but I'm running late already today, sorry). Thus, this update may well change or be amended later. However, the bottom line is:

We cannot recycle as much as before. HOWEVER, at least two of the guest speakers (including Jeff Murray at Far West Fibers) encouraged people to continue using their curbside recycling AS USUAL, and let the processors worry about the market end of things, and the fact that they may have to store and possibly at some point landfill some of the items. So I will third this suggestion, because you and I have no way to know or keep up with how they are handling the materials on a daily basis without literally working there, or calling them daily, which I'm not going to do, for both our sakes. (Mine, cuz I'd like to have a life, and theirs, because they have better things to do - like keep finding markets for this stuff - than to update you and me every day). So if you now throw away items that it turns out they HAVE found a market for despite what you may or may not have heard in the news, then it is causing things to go to the landfill that shouldn't. I promise, all of our processors and recyclers are as rabid as you and I are about keeping this stuff out of the landfill if at all possible. It's actually better for their bottom line. So let them do their job.

But, this leads back to my first and foremost recommendation during this downturn in all markets: REDUCE, REDUCE, REDUCE!!! Then REUSE, then recycle. As in, QUIT BUYING SO MUCH STUFF AND PACKAGING in the first place, especially plastic grocery bags. We just have to change our behavior. Yes, they make life seductively easy - that's the whole problem, like everything that's bad for either ourselves directly, or the environment (thus still bad for ourselves indirectly;), the "easy way" is always worse for us in the end. (Fast food, pharmaceuticals, driving gas cars, packaging, etc.). But I digress. My point being, it's now more crucial than ever to avoid buying plastic packaging as much as possible now. Yes, this is very hard for the average or "typical" (which is a loose term) modern American family who finds themselves scrambling to keep up with one or even two or more jobs plus kids, much less any kind of "life". Lucky me, I'm single, no pets, no kids, making it easier for me to research all this, and take the steps that are better for the environment (bringing my own reusable bags to the store, going out of my way to buy from farmers markets, or in bulk with my own containers, etc.) But I know that all my friends who have kids are lucky to just get junior fed and out the door in one piece or two at most sometimes even with all our modern conveniences, much less take time to go shopping for locally produced or sourced items, much less remember to bring re-usable containers and bags, etc. But, we gotta try. Iwill continue to try to source things for people in Portland toward that end and post it here as much as possible.

I wish to also re-emphasize that the curbside recycling still takes a limited subset of all the items that have been able to be recycled by Far West Fibers - our major local processor of recycled items, so please try not to contaminate it with the wrong things like plsatic lids, plastic bags, styrofoam, or actual garbage. This is due to how it's handled, since it comes in bulk co-mingled quantities now. All containers must be rinsed and empty with no lids, always, in this curbside system. All those lids and bags can be taken down and deposited separately at the Far West Fibers depots, though I recommend the SE 17th and Holgate depot the most based on my last post's dicoveries. It's all becuase of the handling - the curbside system uses compacting to mash all our co-mingled items together, which yes, then has to be sorted out later. This is why plastic bags are so bad in there - they cause it to get tangled up and snag on the sorting and handling equipment. This is also why small plastic items that are not bottles or tubs or made from different materials than #1 and #5 in the curbside recycling are also a problem - handling. (And remember they cannot take the new corn based plastics at all - they melt and gum up the works. These must still go in the garbage for now, sadly, so try to avoid them as much as possible. They are labeled "PLA" with or without a #7 also). Far West has separate bins for these items when you go to drop them off on your own at their depots. So please don't mix them in your curbside system, or that will reduce the already severly limited market for these even further by contaminating their loads.

I was also saddened to hear of the loss of Bear eCycling in our community - the electronics recycling depot run by Oso Martin, founder and former director of Free Geek in SE Portland. I actually heard him call in on the TOL program this morning letting us all know that he had to fold up shop as of last Saturday December 13 (an unlucky day, indeed) because of the severe crash in the market for the materials he was taking in. (He was having to pay to get rid of stuff, vs getting paid for them, ouch). Thus, we have lost one great resource for the electronics recycling we had before. And this is happening just as local laws and regulations are gearing up on January 1, 2009 to steer more electronics out of the landfill and toward local processors and recyclers (which we definitely still want to do!) However, Far West can and does still take these, as does Free Geek- who reuses a great amount of what they take in, benefiting the community with free or very low cost usable computers (totally refurbished with Linux, so no old Windows data floating around on them at all;). So please keep recycling your electronics there.

And yes, I have broken my initial vow with this post to always re-post who takes what at the bottom of this particular post just now. That's cuz I'm in a big hurry to get the word out on the above just now. I'll try to re-post this with an update on recyclers and sources a bit later. (Hopefully before I'm gone to NY next week for Cmas). But bottom line, reduce, reduce, reduce, then reuse, then recycle, to help with this issue. As someone on the Think Out Loud blog said, it's actcually much harder to avoid buying plastics right now than it is to be a "kosher vegan locavor" (I may not have that exactly right, but I think you get the idea;) just now. But we can try. Stay tuned for more, and happy holidays to all, meanwhile. Thanks - Jan

PS A little good nws - this system is working very well for my vermi-composting:

http://www.whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm

My worms are self-migrating into the upper bin just fine as I type this now - yay:).