Every Job Can be a Green Job
BPS Staff and Voz Board Member, Lauren Norris, describes the advantages of deconstruction over demolition in a day laborer workshop.
Day laborers learn through a project this fall that they are the frontline of environmental justice
A Tour of Styrofoam (TM) Recovery
David Kleinke (Class 65) shares his experience of a tour at a local company called Agilyx who recovers Styrofoam.
Keep your handbook up to date!
Welcome Class 66!
Class 66 on tour at the Beaverton ReStore
Master Recyclers will see a whole crew of new face at events. Please welcome Washington County’s latest graduates. They are from Sherwood to Forest Grove, and they are excited to join the 1550 Master Recyclers before them. A huge thank you to the City of Beaverton and Washington County for providing space and scholarships. We all know that Class 66 is going to do great things!
Spread the word! Now accepting applications
Multnomah County Master Recycler class and volunteer program
¡Bienvenidos a voluntarios bilingües!
Aprenda. Inspire. Logre un impacto ambiental positivo.
- Eight consecutive Wednesdays at 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. Starting January 10, 2018 and two Saturdays 8:00 am - 2:00 pm January 20 and February 10
- The Columba Center at Saints Peter & Paul Episcopal Church 247 SE 82nd Ave, Portland
- COST: $50 fee
- Partial and full scholarships are available without extra application requirements
Deadline for applications is Wednesday December, 2017 at Noon.
Details and application: www.masterrecycler.org
Appreciations
A New Centurion
Thank you to Rebecca MacGregor who has completed 102.5 hours! As you can imagine, as a Centurion, Rebecca has many amazing projects that could be highlighted. Rebecca has participated on large scale projects like helping implement recycling and compost at the Festa Italiana (which has about 40,000 participants). She has also volunteered in intimate settings like when she visited James who has Asperger's Syndrome and LOVES recycling. Rebecca visited his home and offered information about home recycling and then took him (and his mother and helper) to Far West Recycling so he can learn to sort recycling. Another innovative project that Rebecca spearheaded was creating a sharing closet with her fellow residents in her condo building. Thank you for your long term commitment to recycling and waste prevention, Rebecca!
Certified Master Recyclers
Congratulations and thank you to Master Recyclers who completed their Certification this month.
Katherine Martin (Class 59) participated in a multitude of Clackamas County events. She acted as a lead crew member for two years at the Annual Down by the Clackamas River event where volunteers pull garbage from the Willamette River and even sort salvageable materials for recycling. She was also found promoting recycling at event from the Homestead Fair to the Gladstone Community Festival. She was at the launch part for the Max Orange Line and staffed tables at the Milwaukie and Oregon City Farmers’ markets.
Sally in the SE Examiner with a year of trash
Sally Oakes (Class 64) staffed all sorts of fun spring and summer recycling information booths to help spread the recycling love. She was at Gresham's Rock the Block, a couple of Portland's Sunday Parkways and joined fellow Master Recyclers at the Division Street Fair and Milwaukie Farmer's Market. She is pictured here in a SE Examiner article (that was written before she was even a Master Recycler!) that chronicled her experience of holding her garbage for a whole year -just to see how much there was.
Laura and Leesha having fun talking about food waste
Laura Cooper (Class 65) was central organizer at work of a two-week Waste Awareness Campaign; which included: a "Sustainability at Work" presentation, waste reduction pledge activities, a review of current office recycling options (including e-waste), a scavenger hunt, relevant movie viewings, and an employee panel discussing creative ways to prevent waste. Outside of work, Laura also did an 'Ask Laura' series on Facebook with friends and is pictured behind Leesha Posey (Class 64) at the Portland Climate Action Now: Save Your Food table.
Liz's headshot for the Go Green Conference
Liz Decker (Class 65) spoke at the Go Green Conference about the cool things she did with her payback. Here is what it said about her in the speakers' list: "Liz Decker is the Purchasing Manager and Green Team President at the DoubleTree by Hilton Portland. As an avid recycler, she recently completed the Master Recycling class and continues volunteering and educating people about recycling and food waste in the Portland and Clackamas areas. She also oversees many of DoubleTree Portland's recycling and composting efforts and introduces new waste saving techniques for employees to use both at work and at home."
Paivi Panttila Vargas (Class 65) set up her volunteer time in one of the furthest posts of Master Recyclerdome. She offered recycling information for several lovely days at the Canby Farmers' Market and also the Canby Independence Day Celebration. Paivi also joined a small team of regional Master Recyclers exploring how we can talk about sustainable practices in textiles. The group is in the investigative stages. Paivi has been checking out the work that DEQ is doing on the topic.
Emily (on the right) is pictured at Sunday Parkways with classmate Amber Clifford.
Emily Weiglin (Class 65) spent a lovely summer of weekends at events like Sunday Parkways where she engaged participants on topics of Recycling, Repairing, Sharing, Reuse and Buying Smart. Meanwhile at work in the local law firm she succeeded in researching, pitching, developing and putting into place a Corporate for Social Responsibility policy and program. Her workplace will be responsible to answering to the three E's of Sustainability: Equity, Environment and Economy!
Volunteer Opportunities
Conservation News
Recycling Markets and Impacts of the National Sword
November 15th, 2017
McMenamins Edgefield - Blackberry Hall, 2126 SW Halsey St, Troutdale, OR 97060
REGISTER HERE - LESS THAN 20 SEATS REMAINING
On July 18, 2017, the Chinese government notified the World Trade Organization of the country’s intention to stop accepting 24 categories of waste and recyclables as of January 1, 2018, causing speculation and concern in the markets. This ban would have a profound effect on the ability to market various grades of plastics and mixed papers as we head into winter and our peak recycling months. These are commonly collected materials in many recycling programs, and China has been the primary consumer of many of these recyclable materials recovered locally and globally. What does this mean for recycling programs? How will we weather the storm?
Join industry and policy professionals as we learn more, are updated, and discuss the impacts of the National Sword and the intended ban; and more importantly, discuss how we move forward.
Reclaim it reaches new landmark!
Congratulations to our partners, Cracked Pots, who reached a remarkable landmark through ReClaim It! volunteers rescued 300,000 pounds (or 150 tons) of materials from the local "dump" and sold them in the creative reuse storefront. By weight, that's like saving 30 school buses, 5 baby blue whales, or 300,000 kittens!
Business Offering: GO Box PDX
Opportunity to own a sustainable, bike-based, award-winning, mission-driven, local Portland business. Asking $85,000
GO Box is an innovative service providing reusable takeout containers to food vendors and their customers. With conveniently located drop sites and a free mobile app, GO Box is a fast and easy alternative for busy people who love the convenience of take out but hate the waste. GO Box picks up the used containers, has them washed in a commercial kitchen, and returns them clean to vendors — all by bicycle.
Since launching in July 2011, GO Box has grown steadily, enlisting over 3,300 subscribers, 80 food vendors and signing up over 40 Corporate Program customers. To date, GO Box has prevented the use of more than 115,000 disposable containers -- and we are currently on track to eliminate 14,000 just this year.
Contact owner/founder Laura Weiss: laura@goboxpdx.com, 971-212-9870,
www.goboxpdx.com
Jobseekers Board
- Metro Construction and Garbage Regulation Program Assistant
- City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability Communications