Dismal doings May 2018 in Portland

Sigh. I will NOT be discouraged. I will NOT be discouraged!

Okay, that's because, the last time I made it to the SE Portland Far West Fibers depot to recycle moving boxes this week, I found they take almost nothing now. waah.

Seriously. No plastic at all - not even stretchy film Just mixed paper, and metals. (Ferrous and non-ferrous).

This is a far cry from all the items they took at the height of operations a couple of years ago. (When I was disabled. I still am, but I did try working this last year briefly for a short run until my body protested too much again.)

So I'm stuck sneaking only small amounts of plastic bags into my local Fred Meyer's variety store bin (they take small amounts only). And throwing away all the rest except for curbside quality plastics in the curbside recycling.

What constitutes curbside quality in Portland, Oregon currently, you ask?

Well, now it's not even by the numbers, but by size and shape. I.e, all food grade 4 oz or bigger clean plastic containers (tubs, plant pots) or empty bottles with necks (NO LIDS!). Nothing else. Nothing smaller, or odd shaped. Or bigger than a gallon container.

So basically just yogurt and salsa tubs, and shampoo and laundry soap bottles e.g.

That leaves a LOT of plastic going into our waste stream. Which eventually goes... who knows where? Apparently somehow a LOT of it is going into the ocean, and killing loads of animals all up and down the food chain. And turning into sand on our shores. And infiltrating our sea salt. No kidding.

Way to foul our own nest. And we're supposed to be the smart ones...

Sorry for such a downer post you guys, but I find so much being made of and from plastic that it's really disheartening. I dearly hope the next generation finds a lot of alternatives. I know they're out there. Like mushroom packaging for one, and corn starch based bags and peanuts for another.

And biodegradable baby diapers. Please. If you're not going to re-use cloth, please don't use plastic!

But that's another post for another day. When I'm less grumpy and not in so much pain.

TTFN- Jandroid, the recycling android

A glimmer of recycled light February 2018

While we've all been adjusting to the new, stricter recycling guidelines in the greater Portland metro area, I did stumble on two bits of potential good news on the recycling front since I last posted. Thanks to my coworker Elden, who got a wild hair and googled that infernal "ethafoam" or PE foam I've complained about for years, we may have found an outlet for it!

Alas, it's not local but... it's a far site better than just dumping it in the landfill. You just cut it up, pack it into a box and ship it to your nearest facility that takes it per this site:

http://www.recyclepefoam.com/

Update 3/1/18: however, I'm sad to report our first shipment to the nearest facility to us listed there apparently did not exist and it was returned to us undeliverable. (Boy is this some well-traveled ethafoam now - it should have frequent flyer miles.) I don't know if the site is a front or hoax, or just out of date and we got unlucky. But you might try googling to see if the facilities listed really exist where they say they do. Details...

But on the Styrofoam front I found out that Agylix also takes all other clean #6 polystyrene plastics such as food clamshells, and other containers at their facility in Tigard on SW Hunziker also, not just the Styrofoam itself. This is also great news for those in the Portland, Oregon metro area. I've been able to take two loads there recently on my way to my doctor's office nearby.

It still behooves us all to reduce and reuse FIRST as much as possible, always.

Alas, my body snatchers have reared their ugly heads again, causing me to flare and have to set my part-time job down again, sniff sniff. But... not before re-inspiring me to revive this blog again for the win! I will try to keep it up going forward still as able.

Again, reducing and reusing are always best, even before recycling.

Cheers,

Jandroid