RBRC Honors Oregon Government Entity

The RBRC Community Recycling Leadership Award recognizes RBRC community program participants for their outstanding efforts in rechargeable battery recycling. In addition to Metro and its ENACT program, the Indiana Household Hazardous Waste task force and the Lancaster County, Pa., Solid Waste Management Authority were also recognized by RBRC for their leadership.

Metro serves more than 1.3 million residents in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties and the 24 cities in the Portland, Ore., area.

Metro's accomplishments in 2001 include:

·Collecting almost 3,000 pounds of rechargeable batteries from citizens and businesses through its hazardous waste program

·Awarding an ENACT grant to the Oregon Zoo, a Metro-owned facility, to purchase battery recycling stations

·Answering over 100,000 calls a year from individuals and businesses across the region about recycling

·Maintaining a referral database of more than 300 recycling depots, drop sites, collection services, curbside and reuse programs

"The success of the RBRC program depends largely on our community partners spreading the word and making it easy for local residents to recycle their rechargeable batteries," said Ralph Millard, RBRC’s executive vice president. "Metro has proven to be a stellar example for other communities to model their recycling collection programs after and we applaud their innovation, leadership and dedication to spreading the word about recycling."