Members of the Friendly Area Neighbors are invited to recycle their qualifying plastics at the next FAN Plastics Collection event.

Friendly Area Neighborhood Plastics Collection
Thursday, October 24, 2019, 5:00 to 6:55 PM (before the FAN Annual Meeting)
Washington Park Community Center, 2025 Washington Street, Eugene

​We recommend scheduling an appointment. Appointments will be honored before walk-ins. Appointments are available in 15-minute blocks. We will email you a reminder and suggest times with fewer appointments to reduce your wait.

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.

And please stay for the FAN Annual Meeting to follow.

Additional Resources

• Printable Labels with Pictures for Plastics Collection
• Become a Registered Community Collector
• Upcoming plastics collection events and more information
  
• Neighborhood contact: terryparker195@gmail.com

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.