Published: Friday, October 12, 2007 Recyclers captured 25 percent of the trash generated by fans at Autzen Stadium during the first two home games this season. That's a sliver compared with Lane County's other big-crowd events - which routinely achieve 44 percent to 90 percent recycling rates - but it's still a ton of stuff diverted from the landfill.Correction: That would be 98 tons of beer cans and bottles, football programs and candy boxes transformed from trash into useful raw materials over the entire course of a UO home football season. More importantly to Lane County's legions of recycling devotees, Autzen is a beachhead on a campaign to prove that this is the greenest city of them all before June, when the 2008 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials come to town and the whole world will be watching. "This is Eugene for God sakes," said Susan Truax, a clothing printer who's been a volunteer recycler at the Eugene Celebration for 16 years. "We've got to step up to the plate. This is really, really important."

In addition to the Autzen effort, Eugene is making major gains. Among recent developments: The emergence of a professional class of recycling experts and the standardization of recycling hardware. The UO Athletic Department launched its new recycling drive this season in the wake of reports about the mountains of post-game garbage. "They got pretty sour marks last year," said Anne Donahue, city of Eugene compost specialist, "and they're taking steps to improve - and next year they'll do even better." But Dave Williford, UO sports information director, said it was nothing like that. "In terms of self-evaluation, we - I'd like to think - become more efficient on our own," he said. Enlisting the help of Sanipac and Lane County government, the department figured out how to capture the bottles and cans that fans abandon at the stadium gates, and how to recycle six different types of items fans leave inside the stadium. The latter strategy requires that high school sports teams and bands that sign up for post-game cleanup make two sweeps through the stands: One for recyclables and the other for trash, Williford said. Now, nearly half of the debris left in the stands is recycled.

Last year, the stadium operators only tried to pick out the water bottles, sending the rest to the dump. "I'm sure it takes a little longer, but it's one of those things we feel necessary," Williford said. The department deserves credit, said master recycler Judi Horstmann, who helped corral bottles and cans at the stadium gate before one recent game. The UO was "a little reluctant about putting out their fans, but they were willing to try it," she said. Local recycling took a major leap this year when entrepreneur Willy Breninghouse started a consulting business in January called Waste Free Oregon. The tall, slender Springfield resident with dreadlocks down to his thighs learned recycling though seven years of volunteering at the Oregon Country Fair in Veneta. He's now in hot demand as a recycling guru for events as varied as the Lane County Fair, the local Good Earth Home, Garden & Living Show, and the World Reggae Festival at Marcola. Breninghouse and his fiancee Shari Smith, who is also his recycling partner, were home only seven days in July, and fewer than that in August. The rest of the time they were at events, recycling. "This went further and faster than I anticipated," Breninghouse said. "He is a big development," said Donahue, the compost specialist. Recycling for major events is a delicate business that requires much knowledge and skill. Breninghouse helps event organizers set up-front standards for recyclable or compostable serving ware, teaches vendors how to produce a clean waste stream, plants bins in strategic places, trains waste sorting teams, ensures the materials are cleanly separated so receiving companies don't reject them, and finishes up with recommendations for the following year. "He's really our lead. He's going to be serving even a larger role next year," said Jane Holloway, a Lane County Fair manager.

Most recyclers believe the public can't be trusted to reliably place the right items in the right bins. It's challenging to tell a clear cornstarch cup from a clear plastic cup, but they belong in different bins. Even attendees at the super green Oregon Country Fair can't keep their recycling, garbage and compost straight. "The verbiage on our signage is very clear, but somehow, someway people mistake a paper plate for a battery, so we have to sort it out," said Lara Howe, recycling co-coordinator for the venerable Veneta event. Some events rely on volunteers for sorting. But the work isn't for the faint of heart. "It's a nasty, messy, yucky job. I wouldn't want to do it," said Jack Hoeck, vice president of environmental services for Rexius, based in Eugene. Rexius composts the biodegradable wastes from a host of Lane County events. A corps of paid recycling sorters is emerging in Lane County. The Saturday Market and Lane County Fair both have sorters on the payroll. "These jobs are worthy jobs,"

Saturday Market Manager Beth Little said. "You've got some people who've woven this into an economy - a job creation, income-producing economy." Lane County's recycling experts - who work for business, non-profit and government agencies - are pushing for countywide standardization of recycling hardware, such as collection bins. They're striving to train the public to be more accurate waste sorters. They're hoping to associate the color green with compostables, blue with recyclables and black with garbage. Eugene and Lane County have bought color-coded recycling stations of green, black and blue. With an eye to preparing for the Olympic Trials, the local governments won two grants totaling $36,000, which allowed them to buy 35 ClearStream sets to use at festivals and other events. In the past year, residents have seen them at Saturday Market, the Scandinavian Festival and Bohemia Mining Days, to name a few. Recyclers see the 2008 Olympic Track Trials in Eugene next June as a top-flight chance to show the world everything they know. As many as 19,000 people will take in eight days of competition at Hayward Field. The event will generate 38 tons of waste, according to calculations by a pair of UO management students. Recyclers have made plans to capture and recycle much of that waste, but the Trials' local organizing committee has yet to give approval.

The plans include employing the ClearStream sets at Hayward field, plus as many as two dozen additional sets the committee will buy, said Alex Cuyler, city of Eugene recycling analyst and chairman of the trials' sustainability subcommittee. The plan also calls for video looped on hotel TV sets and on video screens, and possibly scoreboards to educate fans on sorting their waste. But all of these are just ideas until the event's top organizers give their blessing, Cuyler said. "While we have a lot of things suggested, so far nothing's been formally adopted," he said. Organizers say they'll firm up recycling plans by Dec. 1.

RECYCLING SCORECARD Recapturing waste is becoming a routine part of putting on a big event in Lane County. Examples:
Lane County Fair: Recycled 72 percent of would-be garbage in 2007, a tick down from the 74 percent captured in 2006.
Saturday Market: Recycled or composted from 83 to 90 percent of its waste each month this summer. The market will compost 15 tons of food, food ware and vegetable matter this year, compared with 21,050 pounds the previous year.
Eugene Celebration: 44 percent diversion rate this year; previous year's rate unknown.
Oregon Country Fair: Has achieved 90 percent diversion in the past.
Willamette Valley Folk Festival: 75 percent, compared with 53 percent the previous year.
Art and the Vineyard: 66 percent this year; rate unknown for last year.