Lane County seeks “Community Collectors” of #2, #4, #5 plastics

Lane County staff and Master Recycler volunteers teamed up on September 30 with Denton Plastics to collect #2, #4, #5 plastics. In four hours, the event collected 2.76 tons of plastic, delivered by 963 customer vehicles.

Lane County would like to hold another event, but we want to explore another format.

To cut down on vehicle miles traveled, staff costs, site constraints, we’re gauging interest to see if community members/organizations/businesses/ neighborhood groups would be interested in collecting plastic resin codes #2, #4 and #5? All plastic material collected from larger “collectors” would then be transported to Lane County by appointment only.

Are you or is your Santa Clara organization interested in being a larger collector?

Format Details

• Lane County is seeking interested parties to act as community collectors to provide drop off opportunities. This would be ideal for churches, schools, neighborhood groups, businesses who want to serve their community and customers with a material that has gotten a lot of attention as of late due to the changes in commingle, curbside recycling;
• You would have the choice between collecting for your own group or opening it up to the public – your address and hours would be posted on our website;
• Community Collectors (if public) would promote and keep regular collection times–at a minimum, once per week.
• You would be expected have staff or volunteers available during all posted times to accept materials- or more accurately, to review and reject improper materials;
• Promote and insist on the basic instructions: All items must be clean, must have resin code stamp of #2, #4, #5  and must have labels removed;
• Lane County will collect materials from collectors by appointment.  We anticipate this would occur the first week in April;
• Depending on space and storage constraints, collector appointments and systems will be individualized;
• Lane County would be available to assist with bags and other resource development and volunteer training.

If interested in being a Collector, please contact Angie R. Marzano, Waste Reduction Specialist, at Angie.MARZANO@co.lane.or.us and indicate the following:

1. Can we publish your collection address/business name for residents to bring their plastics? Or do you wish your collection to be internal/private only?
2. What resources would you need (e.g., signage, durable sacks for collection (size), instructions, training sessions, etc.)?
3. Would you require additional volunteers?  Can you commit to having it staffed during all collection hours to ensure materials are clean and prepared properly?
4. Do you know of anyone that would be interested in this type of collection scenario that we could contact or that would like to be added to correspondence?

Thank you for your interest in helping Lane County recover marketable, source-separated plastics!