Lane County residents have a new way to responsibly dispose of tough-to-recycle items. Four new recycling centers have opened at transfer stations in Cottage Grove, Florence, Veneta and Glenwood.
Lane County Waste Management has partnered with the Circular Action Alliance, who created RecycleOn Oregon, a statewide recycling education and collection improvement program.
These new RecycleOn Centers collect recycling pieces that are difficult for waste management to sort out of curbside recycling. Items like plastic container lids, six-pack carriers and plastic bags would typically end up in the landfill. Now, residents can save these items and take them to dedicated centers.
Jeff Orlandini, the manager for Lane County Waste Management, said most of the RecycleOn Centers were placed in areas with less access to recycling services.
“Somewhere like Florence, people aren't going to save their lids up and come [to Eugene] on a big level,” said Orlandini. “So these are our larger and more rural sites.”
The RecycleOn Centers are funded through Oregon’s Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act, which mandates that producers of plastic packaging and paper products help fund improvements to the recycling system.
Items taken to the RecycleOn locations must be sorted according to the accepted-materials list at the centers. The centers are open during the same hours as the transfer stations.
