Oregon Recycling Rate Tops 50 Percent

Results of the 2010 Oregon Material Recovery and Waste Generation Rates Report, released by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), show the state reached a 50 percent material recovery rate in 2010, a 1.7 percent increase from 2009’s 48.3 percent rate.

The report, which details material destined for disposal, recovery through recycling, composting and burning for energy, is available at www.deq.state.or.us/lq/sw/recovery/materialrecovery.htm.

“The size of Oregon’s whole waste pile remained nearly constant, but recovery of materials rose while disposal fell,” says Mary Lou Perry, DEQ solid waste specialist and report coordinator. “This is good news and may show that people are more aware of the value of resource recovery.”

According to the report, in 2010, Oregon recovered 2.17 million tons of the municipal waste stream and disposed of around 2.52 million tons.

The report notes that organics, including yard debris, food waste and wood waste, represented the largest segment (39 percent), followed by paper (29 percent), metals (19 percent), glass (5 percent), “other” (5 percent), plastic (2 percent) and electronics (1 percent).

Oregonians’ per-capita waste generation (the sum of all discards, both recovered and disposed) in 2010 was 2,442 pounds, almost exactly the same as the 2,441 pounds per person calculated in 2009.