Garbage and recycling › Recycle at home › Multifamily recycling › Resident education
People recycle more when recycling is simple. Learn about the straight-forward two-sort system and the items not to include.
Your local jurisdiction can provide posters or flyers with pictures of the two-sort system to make it easy for residents to know what they can and can't recycle. There are materials in various languages and people available to go door to door with literature or provide in-person presentations at resident or property manager meetings to answer questions – all for free. For more information, call 503-234-3000.
People recycle more when recycling is simple. The two-sort system is designed to be straight-forward: glass in one bin, everything else in the other. When the system is effortless, people love to recycle.
The entire region now uses the two-sort system described below. Why? Because it saves you time and makes recycling easy for your residents.
| Good to go: The two-sort system | |
|---|---|
 |
Put this stuff in one bin Metal cans, aluminum, plastic bottles and tubs, garden pots, buckets, cardboard (some haulers still require cardboard to be separated), newspaper and scrap paper (such as unwanted mail, egg cartons, cereal boxes and milk cartons), can be recycled. |
 |
Put glass in the other Glass on the side, please. Why do we have to keep glass separate? Because when it breaks, it can damage the machinery used for recycling or injure the people who handle recyclables. |
| No-go: Stuff that can't be recycled | |
 |
Food-soiled paper such as take-out containers, pizza boxes, pet food bags and paper towels cannot be recycled. |
 |
Frozen food boxes are coated with chemicals that repel water; they cannot be recycled. |
 |
Ceramics, window glass and glass cookware cannot be recycled. |
| Stuff that can be recycled, but not in your bins |
|
| For more information, call Metro Recycling Information at 503-234-3000 or use the find a recycler tool... Find a recycler | |
 |
Plastic lids and caps can't be recycled on-site. They should go in your garbage containers, or you can take them to a recycling depot. |
 |
Plastic bags can't go into recycling bins because they tangle the recycling machinery. However, they can be recycled at many grocery stores and recycling depots. |
 |
Fluorescent
light bulbs can and should be recycled because they contain mercury.
They need to be delivered to a hazardous waste facility. It's free... Learn about household hazardous waste |
 |
Plastic packaging such as clamshells from takeout restaurants and bubble wrap can be recycled, but not in your bins. |
 |
Packing peanuts and block foam can be recycled at many places, including mailing centers. |
 |
Motor oil can be recycled, but it must be taken to a depot... Learn about household hazardous waste |
There are many other materials that cannot be recycled in the bins and shouldn't be thrown in the trash, because they can be reused or may be hazardous. Call 503-234-3000 or visit the find a recycler page for help with these materials... Find a recycler
For ideas and information about where and how to recycle, call the Metro Recycling Information hotline, 503-234-3000 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.Metro Recycling Information hotline
Matt Miller's family has been hauling garbage since 1948. He's the fourth generation to operate Gresham Sanitary Service, East Multnomah County's garbage and recycling service.
Back in 1948, garbage hauling in Gresham required only two men and one truck. Recycling wasn't even part of the equation. With Matt's generation, the business has taken on a whole new identity. More than half of the company's staff is now assigned to its recycling program.
Matt says he sees this number increasing as the industry replaces garbage hauling with more and more recycling. "We're getting to the point where garbage will be almost nonexistent, and everything that we discard will be recyclable in some fashion," Matt says. "We're right at the cusp." The key to long-term behavior change, Matt says, is having a vigilant property manager who can correct improper recycling as it happens.
"The communities that are the most successful at recycling have on-site management that monitor garbage and recycling enclosures on a daily basis," he says. "It only takes a couple people doing the wrong thing to mess up what a large amount of people did very well."
