Companies, Oregon City Join Together to Promote OMG Recycling

The City of Portland, Ore., has joined with Time Inc., International Paper, and the National Recycling Coalition on a program to boost the collection of old magazines and catalogs through curbside collection programs. The partnership is being called 'ReMix,' (Recycling Magazines is Excellent).

"The ReMix campaign is a natural fit with City of Portland goals to reduce waste and increase citywide recycling rates," said Dan Saltzman, Portland city commissioner. "Diverting more magazines and catalogs from landfills will provide significant environmental and economic benefits to our local community.”

The program began in Boston and Prince George's County, Maryland. In those areas the program resulted in an increase in magazine and catalog recycling by 17 percent and 11 percent in those locations, respectively. The program has since been expanded to include the Milwaukee, Wisconsin metro area.

In addition to a variety of local communication and outreach messages, the ReMix campaign will utilize full-page, public service advertisements in a variety of magazines including TIME, Parenting and Sports Illustrated. These ads, featuring color imagery, include the Web site for Portland's Office of Sustainable Development. The partners will monitor results by working with local recycling facilities to regularly sort and count magazines and catalogs coming through the curbside program.