Untitled Document

Lane County leads
Oregon in recycling
By GREG BOLT The Register-Guard - August 28, 2001

Lane County is at the top of the heap, garbagewise.

For the first time ever, the county beat out its rivals in the Portland metro area to claim the title as the state's leading recycler. Lane County's recycling recovery rate in 2000 was 52 percent, which edged out the 51 percent rate in the combined metro area counties of Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington.

For the record, Lane County residents recycled 216,532 tons of material last year that otherwise would have ended up in a landfill. That works out to 1,337 pounds per person, or more than 300 pounds above the statewide average.

County residents also sent 256,205 tons of waste to the dump. That's almost 70,000 pounds less than what they threw out the previous year and works out to 1,582 pounds per person, which is 25 pounds less than the state average.

The county's recycling rate based only on material picked up by haulers or taken to the dump was 46 percent. The state Department of Environmental Quality also gives credit for programs that take material out of the waste stream, such as composting and reuse, which added 6 percent to Lane County's total.

"Lane County residents can look at that and be very proud," said Pete Chism, waste reduction specialist for the county.

The Portland area has had a lock on the top recycling spot thanks to its easy access to shipping and its larger market. Julie Daniel, general manager of BRING Recycling, said beating the 800-pound gorilla of garbage is something worth bragging about.

"The fact that we've taken the No. 1 spot is so exciting," she said. "It's sort of like a David-and-Goliath kind of thing."

Chism said some of the credit for the boost in recycling goes to the construction industry, which stepped up recovery of construction and demolition materials. Scrap metal and yard debris also showed solid recycling increases, he said.

Daniel cited the efforts of a new company in the area that recycles roofing material and said contractors seem more aware that old building materials can be put to good use rather than thrown on the garbage pile.

Another factor was that people just put less stuff in the trash can. The county's annual waste tonnage has fluctuated over the past decade, hitting a high of 302,695 tons in 1992 and a low of 239,310 tons in 1996, but had increased in both 1998 and 1999.

Last year's total of 256,205 tons marked a decrease from 1999's mark of 263,180 tons.

With both Lane County and the Portland area neck and neck on recycling rates, it was the decrease in total trash that gave Lane the edge, Daniel said.

"That is really significant from BRING's point of view, because we stress waste recovery and reuse," she said. "For the first time in many, many years, the amount of material we threw away was lower."

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