[greenyes] RE: Thinking outside the box

["SPENDELOW Peter H" <SPENDELOW.Peter@no.address>]

Just so people do not misinterpret Joli's comments that "Oregonians
(sadly) often throw away nickel cans, our best estimate is that as of
2000, approximately 16% of Oregon's deposit containers ended up in
landfills.  This means that close to 84% were recycled - some through
curbside and other collection programs but most returned to stores for
their deposit.  The best estimate I've seen for non-bottle-bill states
is that 72% of beverage containers are disposed and only 28% are
recycled.  

While 16% disposal may be characterized as "often disposed", I am much
happier having a system where only 16% are disposed as compared to 72%
disposal.

The beverage container disposal estimate in Oregon is based on a
comprehensive waste composition study conducted by the Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality.  Below is the web address where this study is
available.  The beverage container information starts on page 17.  See
also appendix tables A17 and A18. Here is the web address:

http://www.deq.state.or.us/wmc/solwaste/wcrep/WCompRep00Final.pdf

Peter Spendelow
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 08 Apr 2003 10:15:37 -0700
To: <Terri_Steen@no.address>,<greenyes@no.address>
From: "Joli Pfaller" <pfallerj@no.address>
Subject: Re: [greenyes] Thinking outside the box
Message-Id: <se92a150.080@no.address>

Terri,

Seems to me that there are areas where garbage collection and recycling
=
are alternating weeks.

Oregonians (sadly) often throw away nickel cans.  There is a lot of =
scavenging for this commodity.
Multi-housing seems to have the heaviest volume of returnables.
This is besides the fact that Oregon leads the nation in hunger.

Joli Pfaller
Recycling Information Specialist
Metro