Friendly Area Neighbors (FAN) are invited to recycle their qualifying plastics at the next FAN Plastics Collection event. This event is run by volunteers of the FAN Sustainability Team.

1. Only FAN residents, property owners, or businesses located within our FAN boundaries are invited. You can find another event, or learn how to create your own, on Lane County's Community Plastics Collection page.
2. ​We strongly recommend scheduling an appointment using the form below. Appointments will be honored before walk-ins.
3. When an appointment time block is full, it is removed from the form. Appointments get scheduled quickly due to high demand and our limited capacity. You can still sign up for the wait list to receive updates, and to volunteer. Volunteers must be pre-approved and may recycle their qualifying plastics at the event.
4. Scroll to the bottom of this page for details of how to prepare your qualifying plastics and other relevant information.

Friendly Area Neighborhood Plastics Collection
Tuesday, February 25, 2020, 4:00 to 6:00 PM (before FAN Emergency Preparedness Team Skill Building Session)
Washington Park Community Center, 2025 Washington Street, Eugene

Qualifying plastics

• No "drop-offs". All items must be screened by a Community Collector.
• All items must be clean, dry, and their adhesive labels removed. Items with food residue, rim foil, or other foreign substances will be rejected.
• Presort plastics into these 4 categories. A magnifying glass or loupe is helpful.
  • #2 Tubs and Lids
  • #2 Bottles and Jugs
  • #4 Bottles, Tubs, and Lids
  • #5 Bottles, Tubs, and Lids
• Lane County Plastics #2, #4 & #5 Collection Details and Tips

Welcome to the "new normal" for plastics recycling. You are doing something good for our stressed oceans and the environment.

Tips to prepare plastics and manage yogurt containers

The photo below shows some of our rejects. Note the labels, foil rims, and odd items with no resin code (the number surrounded by three arrows arranged in a triangle). Some single use yogurt containers are oddly shaped, making them hard to clean and dry, especially when the yogurt residue hardens or becomes moldy. Fill them with soapy water and soak to loosen the gunk. Better yet, switch to bulk yogurt and fill a small container with a dollop of yogurt and top with your favorite fruit or granola. Best of all, make your own yogurt and never buy the single use plastics again. It's easy and safe.

Monday, January 20, 2020, 9:00am – 12:00pm
Westmoreland Park sports fields and in the surrounding Friendly neighborhood
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Make a lifelong investment in water quality, carbon reduction, and provide shade: plant a tree! This MLK Day on Monday, January 20, 2020, volunteers will improve the environment, community, and economy by planting trees in Westmoreland Park around the sports fields and in the surrounding Friendly neighborhood.

This is a family-friendly event. Rain or shine. No experience necessary. All volunteers will be entered to win a limited edition sequoia sweatshirt and other Eugene Outdoors swag. Tools and snacks will be provided.

Property owners may request to plant a tree on their property, or in the right-of-way adjacent to their property, through Friends of Trees online.

For more information about Friends of Trees, including how to join a tree planting crew to plant trees around Eugene or Springfield, to support the planting crew with hot soup, food, or beverages, or to donate, visit the Friends of Trees website.

The Eugene Carbon Free Challenge is enabling Eugene residents to learn more about their personal carbon footprint and ways to reduce it. Visit the Eugene Carbon Free Challenge (ECFC) website.

This weekend many FAN neighbors attended a Plastics Roundup workshop led by Sarah Grimm from Lane County Waste Management. The workshop focused on the April 2019 Plastics Roundup and how residents can help recycle their #2, #4, and #5 plastic containers.
Those who attended the workshop learned more about how the Waste Management system works in Eugene and the process involved in getting the raw materials (used plastic containers) to a plastics processor, in this case Denton Plastics, from Portland. The roundup plastics will be collected by Denton Plastics on April 7th to be processed into plastic pellets that will be used to manufacturer a number of various products.

In addition to talking about overall recycling efforts, Sarah also shared many helpful hints on identifying types of plastics. For instance, Denton requires that all plastics, in addition to being clean, be sorted according to resin type AND shape. #2 Bottles must be sorted separately from #2 tubs which can be trickier than it sounds. Sarah advised that bottles can be identified by the seams across the bottom whereas tubs have little dimples or circles. Another handy trick is rubbing any old type of cooking oil on stubborn labels since oil is an adhesive inhibitor and works much like “goo-be-gone” type products.

The Plastics Roundup is scheduled for April 7th  2019. Lane County Residents are encouraged to bring their clean, sorted plastics to the Glenwood Transfer Station for recycling. However, Friendly Area Neighbors (FAN) can avoid potentially long lines by contacting one of the FAN volunteer plastic collectors.

Plastics Collectors are volunteers who’ve attended the Lane County Waste Management training on the types of plastics being collected, as well as cleaning and sorting requirements. The Collectors will gather neighbor's plastics and take them to the Glenwood Transfer Station.  Collectors, because they attended the waste management training can make an appointment to drop off the plastics they’ve collected at a predetermined time thus minimizing the number of people at the Plastics Roundup on April 7th.

If you live in FAN and would like to coordinate with a Neighborhood Plastics Collector take your plastics to the Roundup please contact Judy deGrandpre’ at 541-514-3903.