CPW Blog: Glenwood Recycling & Short Mountain Landfill

Trafton B.

January 30, 2011 - 7:21 PM

Saturday mornings are usually reserved for much needed rest and relaxation. Waking up at the crack of noon, taking a quick jog around Amazon Parkway (sometimes), and eating a hearty breakfast with my roommates as we watch SportsCenter Top 10 plays of the week. Yesterday was not an average Saturday morning, however, it was much more educational and lot smellier.

Yesterday morning my CPW team and I went on a field trip to gain some perspective on a couple waste disposal sights in Eugene.

At 8:30 AM, Joanna, Monica and I met up with the rest of our team at the Glenwood Central Receiving Station where we were given a tour of several different recycling facilities on site. First, Bob Weller showed us around EcoSort and International Paper Recycling. We saw the inner workings of what happens to our paper and plastic it gets hauled away from the curb every week. Paper is loaded onto a conveyor belt where it's moved into a grinder and then compressed down into a neat three-yard by three-yard cube, called a Gaylord, which is then loaded onto a truck and hauled to a recycling plant.

It was here that I learned that the worst kind of contaminant for recycling facilities is food contamination. Even the slightest amount of grease can ruin an entire batch of recycled paper or plastic. That means that most pizza boxes are not recyclable. As much as you might want to throw that cardboard into the recycling bin, you're just throwing a wrench into the gears. Make sure all paper and plastic has been washed free of food waste before you toss it into the recycling bin. Otherwise, sadly, we have to send it to the dump.

Next we toured Glenwood's Hazardous Waste Recycling center, which was no more than a glorified garage. The facility couldn't have been more than one hundred square feet and it looked like a cross between a high school science laboratory and an auto garage. I forget the actual name of the fellow that showed us around, but his name tag said "Shaggy" and he introduced himself as "Shaggy" to the group, so that's what we'll go with. Shaggy showed us how he separates his materials into acids, like car batteries, and bases, like liquid plumber. Then there's the fun task of figuring out what's in any unmarked bottles. Shaggy said he'd talked with plenty of people that put gasoline for their lawnmowers in an old Apple Juice container. Doesn't take strike you as slightly dangerous.

After Glenwood we drove over to the Short Mountain Landfill near Creswell where Michelle, one of the landfill engineers, lead us around the smelliest mountain I've climbed. I actually don't think I've ever to a landfill, so it was a new experience for me. The engineering and long-term planning that goes into the place is incredible. I always imagined landfill just being these barren wastelands of garbage bags, rotting food, and miscellaneous furniture items. Short Mountain was incredibly well managed. The best part is that they have a small biomass power plant on-site where they can send the methane gases that would normally be fuming from the top of the pile. Instead of filling my nostrils and making my eyes water, that methane gas will be used to generate electricity for the City of Creswell. Cool, huh?

I think I speak on behalf of the team when I say that Saturday morning might not have been the greatest time for a field trip, but it was a nice group bonding experience if nothing else. At the beginning of the quarter we vowed to hang out together outside of CPW once a month for mandatory team building time, so we're staying true to our teach charter. Next time I'm going to suggest Renny's Landing rather than Short Mountain Landfill, though.