Oregon Sees Decline in Recovery Rates

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has reported that the amount of generation continues to grow, while the recovery level has dipped.

Oregonians are generating waste at record-high levels, according to figures released today by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in its 15th annual survey of garbage haulers and private recycling and composting companies. The complete 2006 Oregon Material Recovery and Waste Generation Rates Report is available on DEQ’s Web site at: http://www.deq.state.or.us/lq/pubs/docs/sw/2006MRWGRatesReport.pdf.  

DEQ’s Solid Waste Program, which helps Oregonians reduce and properly manage the waste they generate, produces the report each year to provide an updated look at how the state is faring in terms of waste generation and waste recovery through recycling, composting and material burned for energy recovery.

For last year, the state’s waste generation reached 5.75 million tons. For the past two years, Oregon has failed to meet statewide goals of no increase in waste generation. From 2005 to 2006, total waste generation increased 3.9 percent.

Meanwhile, the state posted a 47.5 percent recovery rate, down from 2005’s 49.1 percent and short of the 2009 goal of 50 percent. The total amount of waste recovered increased slightly in 2006, but the amount of waste generated increased even more.

The material recovered included materials collected from recycling, composting and energy recovery.

Of the total material collected, the state reported that 369,281 tons of metal were recovered, a decline of 27 percent from 2005.

For paper, a total of 790,363 tons were recovered. Overall, paper recovery is up 8 percent.

For organic material, a total of slightly more than one million tons were recovered, an increase of slightly more than 7 percent.

And a total of 96,619 tons of glass were recovered, a 2 percent increase in the past year.

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