Waste Reduction
The Office of Sustainability helps agencies reduce waste, as well as recycle and compost. We provide guidance and best practices for measuring and managing waste reduction efforts including reference materials, education and methods for measuring and tracking waste, recycling and composting.
Agencies are doing their part to help divert materials from Oregon's landfills, and to reduce consumption of materials to begin with. The Department of Environmental Quality's Materials Management Program is leading the way on research, policy and best practice. Other resources are listed below.
Recycling
Oregonians have a strong recycling ethic, and by recycling right, we’re able to reduce the amount of energy required to make new products, reduce pollution and creates jobs. In Oregon, we recycled 1.4 million tons in 2016, which yielded a reduction of 2.9 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions, which is comparable to taking 690,000 cars or their tailpipe emissions of the road!
The Office of Sustainability has developed a
Recycling Quick Guide to help agencies understand where and how to recycle a range of items, from mixed recycling to electronics, batteries and Styrofoam.
Visit Recycle Right! to learn what to keep out of your bin, and visit your local government website to see what items are collected locally. If you live in the greater Portland area (Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties), you can visit RecycleOrNot.org or call the Metro Recycling Information hotline at 503-234-3000. If you live in Marion County, the Marion County HHW collection facility at the Salem/Keizer transit station is open every Thursday, and the first and third Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Collection events are also held periodically in other county communities.
Small businesses call 509-588-5169 for an appointment and fee information.
Composting
The Office conducted a pilot program for rolling out composting in the DAS building portfolio. Based on successful results, DAS now offers composting to all its agency tenants, diverting tons of material from landfills every year.
DEQ Environmental Studies and Information