Report Finds Oregonians Generating Waste at Record Levels

The report provides an annual snapshot of the amounts of materials such as metal, paper, glass and organic materials that are being produced and “recovered.”

Image courtesy: Marion County Public Works Environmental Services

(SALEM, Ore. ) - Oregonians are generating waste at record-high levels, according to figures released today by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality in its 15th annual survey of garbage haulers and private recycling and composting companies.

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.

The report provides an annual snapshot of the amounts of materials such as metal, paper, glass and organic materials that are being produced and “recovered.”

The numbers are important because reduction, recycling, composting and energy recovery of waste material can result in significant greenhouse gas reductions and energy savings. Greater recovery of materials helps preserve scarce natural resources that otherwise would be used.

The numbers also help state solid waste policymakers determine more effective strategies for reducing the amount of waste produced and disposed of in the state.

Oregon’s total waste generation in 2006 reached a record high of 5.75 million tons, or 3,118 pounds per Oregonian per year. 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.

DEQ is stepping up efforts to involve communities, businesses and individuals across the state to reassess the impact of their consumption patterns on solid waste generation.

“These trends should make all Oregonians sit up and take notice. We need to look hard at the resources we use if we want to lessen environmental impacts,” said DEQ solid waste specialist Mary Lou Perry. “The amount of materials we generate and consume has a direct bearing on the amount of greenhouse gases and other pollutants emitted into the environment.”

In 2006, 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.

Breakdown of 2006 numbers:
ENERGY AND GREENHOUSE GAS SAVINGS:

Based on the amount of material recycled (not including composting or energy recovery), estimated energy savings in 2006 amounted to 27 trillion Btu (British thermal units), which is the equivalent of 214 million gallons of gasoline. It is also equivalent to 2.4 percent of 2006 estimated total statewide energy use. Manufacturers save large amounts of energy when they use recycled materials instead of virgin resources.

The estimated greenhouse gas reductions from recycling, composting and energy recovery in 2006 are equal to 3.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, or 740,000 passenger cars off the road. The greenhouse gas benefits of waste recovery are partly the result of the large energy savings industries gain by using recycled materials in manufacturing.

WASTE GENERATION:
This is a measure of total discards (recovery plus disposal) for households and businesses. (Note: While DEQ has detailed information from its survey respondents about specific recovered materials, the survey does not break down materials by tonnage generated and disposed. DEQ conducts waste composition studies, the latest having been completed in 2005, to determine the tonnages of materials disposed.)

Statewide disposal plus recovery: 5,753,962 tons. Total waste generation topped 5 million tons for the third year in a row, and per capita waste generation rose by 3.9 percent.

Statewide disposal: 3,234,619 tons. Besides a decrease in the per capita amount for the recovery of materials, Oregonians are also disposing of more wastes. Per capita waste disposal rose by 5.2 percent between 2005 and 2006.

WASTE RECOVERY:
Oregon’s 47.5 percent recovery rate includes materials collected from recycling or composting, as well as some material burned for energy recovery.

Major categories of recyclables include:
Metal: 369,281 tons recovered. The amount of recovered metal dropped 27 percent from 2005. Several factors contributed to this decrease in metal recycling, including large sales of “hoarded” metal in 2005 and sales from inventory that was collected in previous years.

Paper: 790,363 tons recovered. Overall, paper recovery is up 8 percent.

Organic material (wood waste, yard debris, food waste): 1,092,237 tons recovered. The amount of organic materials recovered increased just over 7 percent.

Glass: 96,619 tons recovered, a 2 percent increase in the past year.

WASTE RECOVERY RATES:
Oregon remains among the nation’s leaders in solid waste recovery and recycling. Each state calculates its recovery rates differently, however, so it’s difficult to make close comparisons.

Oregon’s 1991 Legislature directed DEQ to conduct the Material Recovery and Waste Generation Survey and initially set a statewide 50 percent material recovery goal by the year 2000. The Legislature extended the deadline for meeting the 50 percent mark to 2009.

What the state is doing:
DEQ and local governments are working on several fronts to reduce waste generation and increase recovery. Local governments provide and promote the opportunity to recycle in their communities, and many offer programs aimed at increasing recovery and preventing waste as well.

DEQ is overseeing the newly formed Oregon Electronics Recycling Program. The program will make it easier for Oregonians to discard their unwanted televisions, computers and monitors through a statewide recycling program provided and financed by manufacturers of such equipment. The program will be in full operation in January 2009. For more information, see DEQ’s Web site at: http://www.deq.state.or.us/lq/electronics.htm

DEQ is developing a Waste Prevention Strategy, which will provide broad direction for priority work that DEQ’s Solid Waste Program will focus on in the next 10 years. DEQ is expected to have the strategy completed in early 2008. A key part of the strategy will be partnering with businesses, organizations, local governments and the public to reduce waste.

DEQ’s solid waste specialists throughout the state also provide technical assistance to businesses, trade associations, local governments and the public about cost-effective methods to prevent waste.

What consumers can do:
DEQ’s Web site offers consumers a series of tips, fact sheets and other documents they can use to help them make the best choices in dealing with their solid waste and other forms of pollution.

Go to DEQ’s Solid Waste Web page at: http://www.deq.state.or.us/lq/sw/index.htm. DEQ’s Sustainability Web page also contains additional consumer tips.

Go to http://www.deq.state.or.us/programs/sustainability/10ways.htm to examine 10 ways consumers can prevent pollution, conserve resources and save money. There are links to such topics as Metro-area curbside recycling instructions, finding a recycler for specific materials, and a household hazardous waste collection schedule outside the Portland metro area.

Total waste recovery rates for each wasteshed, by county, region or city followed by 2009 wasteshed goal, and 2005’s rate.

• Baker: 2006 rate: 18.8%; 2009 goal: 25%; (2005 rate: 24.8%)
• Benton: 2006 rate: 42.5%; 2009 goal: 50%; (2005 rate: 46.0%)
• Clatsop: 2006 rate: 35.9%; 2009 goal: 25%; (2005 rate: 40.9%)
• Columbia: 2006 rate: 30.5%; 2009 goal: 32%; (2005 rate: 32.0%)
• Coos: 2006 rate: 20.8%; 2009 goal: 30%; (2005 rate: 22.9%)
• Crook: 2006 rate: 25.4%; 2009 goal: 20%; (2005 rate: 20.5%)
• Curry: 2006 rate: 18.1%; 2009 goal: 30%; (2005 rate: 15.0%)
• Deschutes: 2006 rate: 33.0%; 2009 goal: 45%; (2005 rate: 34.0%)
• Douglas: 2006 rate: 29.7%; 2009 goal: 40%; (2005 rate: 30.6%)
• Gilliam: 2006 rate: 8.5%; 2009 goal: 20%; (2005 rate: 6.7%)
• Grant: 2006 rate: 21.3%; 2009 goal: 19%; (2005 rate: 28.2%)
• Harney: 2006 rate: 28.0%; 2009 goal: 40%; (2005 rate: 26.8%)
• Hood River: 2006 rate: 39.3%; 2009 goal: 25%; (2005 rate: 40.1%)
• Jackson: 2006 rate: 39.7%; 2009 goal: 40%; (2005 rate: 37.7%)
• Jefferson: 2006 rate: 27.7%; 2009 goal: 25%; (2005 rate: 33.1%)
• Josephine: 2006 rate: 44.8%; 2009 goal: 38%; (2005 rate: 42.8%)
• Klamath: 2006 rate: 33.6%; 2009 goal: 20%; (2005 rate: 37.3%)
• Lake: 2006 rate: 19.4%; 2009 goal: 10%; (2005 rate: 14.7%)
• Lane: 2006 rate: 53.7%; 2009 goal: 54%; (2005 rate: 53.7%)
• Lincoln: 2006 rate: 28.3%; 2009 goal: 20%; (2005 rate: 35.3%)
• Linn: 2006 rate: 54.7%; 2009 goal: 40%; (2005 rate: 44.2%)
• Malheur: 2006 rate: 22.8%; 2009 goal: 22%; (2005 rate: 24.8%)
• Marion: 2006 rate: 57.5%; 2009 goal: 54%; (2005 rate: 55.6%)
• Portland Metro Area (Metro): 2006 rate: 55.5%; 2009 goal: 64%; (2005 rate: 58.6%)
• City of Milton-Freewater: 2006 rate: 32.8%; 2009 goal: 25%; (2005 rate: 29.6%)
• Morrow: 2006 rate: 21.6%; 2009 goal: 20%; (2005 rate: 14.0%)
• Polk: 2006 rate: 51.3%; 2009 goal: 35%; (2005 rate: 54.1%)
• Sherman: 2006 rate: 18.5%; 2009 goal: 20%; (2005 rate: 15.9%)
• Tillamook: 2006 rate: 33.7%; 2009 goal: 30%; (2005 rate: 36.9%)
• Umatilla: 2006 rate: 35.0%; 2009 goal: 20%; (2005 rate: 36.5%)
• Union: 2006 rate: 35.8%; 2009 goal: 25%; (2005 rate: 29.4%)
• Wallowa: 2006 rate: 22.2%; 2009 goal: 20%; (2005 rate: 19.5%)
• Wasco: 2006 rate: 21.2%; 2009 goal: 35%; (2005 rate: 26.1%)
• Wheeler: 2006 rate: 23.9%; 2009 goal: 20%; (2005 rate: 34.3%)
• Yamhill: 2006 rate: 46.9%; 2009 goal: 45%; (2005 rate: 50.6%)

The complete “2006 Oregon Material Recovery and Waste Generation Rates Report” is available on DEQ’s Web site at: www.deq.state.or.us/lq/pubs/docs/sw/2006MRWGRatesReport.pdf. Source: DEQ