Roundup and Recycle Your Plastics

Sarah Grimm from Lane County Waste Management explaining how to sort and clean plastics for the Roundup

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.