Garbage and Recycling

We are happy to aid in the development of refuse and recycling enclosure(s) that meets our standards, including the size and placement. We can connect you with the solid waste collector in your area and are glad to share sample plans. Please contact us at 503-557-6363 or wasteinfo@clackamas.us to discuss your site’s needs and limitations before you spend time and money on detailed drawings.

Process

See Zoning and Development Ordinance (ZDO), Section 1021

Step 1: Design review pre-application meeting
In this informal discussion, county staff (including a Sustainability & Solid Waste staff member) and appropriate service providers (e.g., water, fire, sanitary sewer, surface water) provide information and requirements to help applicants fine-tune their project plans.

Step 2: Make updates
If the project goes forward and is deemed feasible by county staff and the Design Review Committee, the next step for the applicant is to revise the site plan to meet any conditions of approval. Typically, one of the conditions will be to "meet the requirements relative to refuse and recycling enclosure(s)" and get a "sign off" from Sustainability & Solid Waste staff.

Timing

It is important to communicate early in the design process since a failure to meet ZDO Section 1021 can delay the issuance of a final Certificate of Occupancy. Failure to meet the requirement also may result in a request to rebuild the enclosure.

Basic Requirements

• Size and access
  Developers must consider the size of containers and receptacles that will be required, and service vehicle accessibility to the enclosure.
  Service trucks are usually large (approximately the size of fire trucks) and they make frequent trips. A service truck must be able to get to the enclosure, pick up the appropriate containers (without requiring staff to move all the containers and receptacles) and leave the site with a minimum of backing up. (Clackamas County Zoning and Development Ordinance (ZDO) Section 1021 provides details.)
• Building materials
  Masonry, brick, or chain link and slats -- there is a variety from which to choose. The idea is to eliminate or reduce the visual impact of the containers.
• Pad
  The enclosure pad must be Portland cement concrete and poured on level ground. Concrete can hold more weight and take more abuse than asphalt.
• Gates, bumpers and "no parking" signs
  Gates must open fully and be free of obstructions. Gate doors must be able to be locked in the open position. Interior bumpers protect the enclosure from container impacts. "No parking" signs and striped curbs help keep the enclosure accessible to collection vehicles.

What to Avoid

• Inadequate size
  If the enclosure is too small, people tend to leave bins outside, which is not allowed. If the containers are jammed inside a small enclosure, it is very difficult for collection staff to remove them for trash and recycling collection.
  A larger enclosure provides room to store more recyclable materials. Because unlimited recycling is free with trash service, this can save a great deal of money.
• Poor siting
  An enclosure at the end of an alley or in a place without adequate maneuvering room for service vehicles creates a dangerous situation for collection staff, as well as for vehicles and pedestrians. Typically there is no other person aboard a garbage truck to guide the driver out of a narrow driveway or around a blind corner.
• Inadequate gates
  The gates need to be large enough to pull a container straight out. For most commercial structures, this means an 8-foot wide opening. Gates that do not lock in the open position can swing shut.
• Inadequate pad
  A Portland cement concrete pad minimizes damage caused by the containers. It should be level and well-drained. It is difficult to move heavy containers over gravel, mud or rutted asphalt. The percent of grade for access to the pad shall not exceed 3%.
• Failure to post no parking signs
  Garbage and recycling trucks typically arrive early in the morning, but this is not always the case. Personnel changes and holidays can change a collection schedule. If other vehicles are parked in the way it may be impossible to collect the trash or recycling.
• No bumpers
  Bumpers on the ground in the interior of the enclosure protect it from the impacts of the heavy containers.

Waste Prevention Assistance for Businesses

Clackamas County provides free technical assistance to businesses on how to reduce waste, reuse materials and recycle unneeded materials. Businesses will receive free desk side recycling boxes and learn how to set up an efficient inside program that enhances the use of the outdoor enclosure. Call 503-557-6363 for a free consultation

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

	Enclosures do not have to be unsightly. This enclosure was designed to complement a new commercial office building.
	Another large, well-designed enclosure, this includes a smaller service door. It encourages employees and janitorial staff to put materials inside the enclosure because they do not have to open the heavier gates.
	Built with the same cedar siding as the professional office building, this spacious enclosure looks good and works well. Posts provide extra protection.
	Using design elements from the main building, this enclosure sits in the middle of a parking lot. Service vehicles have good access to it.
	This large enclosure uses design elements from the new municipal building.
	An example of a chain link and slat enclosure.
	Too small for a group of strip mall tenants, this enclosure has been damaged. Tenants leave trash outside, creating an unsightly and potentially rat-infested area. Furthermore, it is not conducive to recycling.
	Small and unsightly, this enclosure does not meet the needs of this multifamily dwelling.
	Approved before ZDO Section 1021 - this shopping mall places containers in full view of the street. It is unsightly for the residential development across the street, it promotes illegal dumping, and is prone to contamination of recyclables.
	Don't try this at home! The collector is pulling out a 1,200 pound container that could have been picked up mechanically if the enclosure had been well designed.

Free community events that bring volunteers with fixing skills and people with broken items together.

Experienced fixers will attempt to repair or mend your items and may teach you how to fix them yourself. There are no guarantees for a repair. Some items are more difficult to repair, can take longer than we have time for at the event, or even break more during a repair attempt. Fixers can diagnose an issue and offer their best, unbiased advice. Our repair rate is over 75%. Some replacement parts may be available.

What to Bring

Please check the event page on the repair fair schedule for individual repair availability for each event. Examples of possible repair include clothing, textiles, bicycles, small electronics and small home appliances. We also do minor jewelry repair, and sometimes we have someone to sharpen knives and tools. Only bring items small enough to be easily carried by one person, and do not bring any items that are leaking, dangerous, dirty or have a strong odor. We do not do clothing alternations. All clothing must be clean. Repairers can turn down any items that do not meet these guidelines.

A maximum of one broken item per person will be examined at a time. After each item is examined/repaired, you must return to the registration table to be matched with another fixer volunteer for a second item.

Repair Fair Schedule

Find upcoming repair fairs below. Additional events will be added as they are scheduled.

Become a Repair Fair Volunteer

We are only limited in what we can fix by the skills of our volunteers. If you have repair skills and want to be involved, contact wasteinfo@clackamas.us or 503-557-6363.

Host a Repair Fair in your community

We can provide assistance for your event and guide you along the way. Contact wasteinfo@clackamas.us or 503-557-6363.

A greener, cleaner home

We offer a Green Cleaners Workshop for groups within Clackamas County interested in how to make their own, less toxic, more economical, cleaning products for their home.

Benefits to cleaning with green cleaners:

• Less expensive
• You know exactly what's in it
• Better air quality
• Safer products
• Better for the environment
• Fewer antibacterials

How to get a free Green Cleaners Workshop for your community group

We offer the Green Cleaners Workshop for groups of fifteen to twenty. This could be a neighborhood association, garden club, religious group, or other community group. Children, accompanied by their parents, are welcome to participate as well.

Participants will get to make, and take home, the beginnings of your own green cleaner kit. This includes an all-purpose cleaner, window cleaner, soft scrub, bucket, microfiber cleaning cloth, and a green cleaner recipe booklet.

To schedule a Green Cleaners Workshop for your community group, call 503-742-4463 or email sustainability@clackamas.us.

Don't have enough people for a workshop, but want to learn more? Visit Metro's webpage on how to make green cleaners.

We support the Oregon Green Schools program. Certified Oregon Green Schools enjoy the following benefits:

• development of an effective waste reduction and resource conservation program that allows students to explore real-life, hands-on topics
• opportunity to attend the annual Oregon Green Schools Summit, which provides students and staff with interactive workshops, school displays, networking and inspiration to help improve their programs
• recognition on the Oregon Green Schools website and local publications
• framed certificate, plaque or flag to recognize your school's certification

Interested in becoming a Green School? Check out Oregon Green Schools to download an application or see a sample application. If you have questions about the process, contact wasteinfo@clackamas.us or 503-557-6363.

Clackamas County Green Schools

=Premier     =Merit     =Green

Ardenwald Elementary
Bolton Primary
Butte Creek School
Candy Lane Elementary
Carus Elementary
Cedaroak Park Primary
Columbia Academy
Deep Creek Damascus
Forest Hills Elementary
Jennings Lodge Elementary
Hallinan Elementary
John McLoughlin Elementary
Lake Grove Elementary
Lakeridge Jr. High
Linwood Elementary
Lowrie Primary
Milwaukie High
Molalla Elementary
Molalla High
Molalla River Middle
North Clackamas Christian
Oak Creek Elementary
Oregon City Service Learning Academy
Oregon Trail Elementary
Portland Waldorf School
Redland Elementary
Rex Putnam High
River Grove Elementary
St. John the Apostle
Scouters Mountain Elementary
Sojourner Elementary
Springwater Environmental Sciences
Spring Mountain Elementary
Stafford Primary
Trillium Creek Primary
Verne Duncan Elementary
View Acres Elementary
West Hills Montessori
Westridge Elementary
Willamette Primary School
Wilsonville High

We offer resources and assistance to help your school set and meet recycling and waste reduction goals. Our work is in partnership with the Clackamas County Refuse and Recycling Association. Explore our resources below.

Contact: wasteinfo@clackamas.us

Free Resources

Educational posters for the classroom, office, and cafeteria

Make sure everyone in your building knows what to do with their recyclable, compostable, and disposable items. These posters can support your school’s waste reduction program.

Free recycling and composting bins 

Workbooks and Guides

Certify As An Oregon Green School

Clackamas County is a partner of Oregon Green Schools, a statewide organization that celebrates and supports school sustainability. For certification assistance and information, contact wasteinfo@clackamas.us.

Certification tracks: We will support you in the stage of s

• Waste and Recycling
• Green Lunchrooms
• Walk and Roll to School
• Garden and Grounds
• Energy Conservation
• Waste Water and Wetlands

Reduce Wasted Food At School

Compost food scraps at school

Some schools in Clackamas County are eligible to collect compostable food scraps through a commercial composting program. Other schools may consider a small garden composting program. Whatever your needs, we are here to help. Contact us for assistance. 

Milk dispensers 

Since 2017, Clackamas County has been helping schools transition from disposable milk cartons to using milk dispensers with a washable cup for milk service. This transition has saved thousands of gallons of milk and prevented hundreds of thousands of cartons from ending up in the landfill.

Fluorescent lamps are more energy efficient and last much longer than incandescent lights, and can be recycled after they burn out. These lamps help consumers and businesses cut lighting energy use and reduce energy costs. However, as with any product that contains mercury, it is important to dispose of fluorescent lamps properly to protect public health and the environment.

The following information and resources below will help keep you, your staff and your customers safe.

• Identify which lamps are fluorescent
• Create a plan to recycle fluorescent lamps
• Where to recycle lamps
• How a fluorescent lamp is recycled
• How to clean up broken lamps
• Request lamp boxes and additional resources
• Other hazardous waste

Identify which lamps are fluorescent

Businesses in Oregon discard millions of lamps each year, making them the largest source of mercury in our waste stream. Fluorescent lamps include tubes, bulbs and CFL lights. Information about recycling and storing applies to all fluorescent lamp types.

Lamps that contain mercury:

Fluorescents

• U-tubes
• Circular tubes
• Linear tubes
• UVA bulbs
• Compact fluorescent lights (CFL)

High Intensity Discharge

• Mercury vapor
• High-pressure sodium
• Metal halide lamps
• Neon lighting

Create a plan to recycle fluorescent lamps

1. Make sure responsible staff know the regulations and good management practices. If you are unsure about what is required of you, contact the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) at 503-229-5913.
2. Store used lamps properly.
   1. Place them in a cardboard box. For tube lights, the box the bulbs came in works well. For smaller bulbs, any box will do.
   2. Do not put tape or rubber bands on the lamps.
   3. Place the box in a safe, dry area where lamps won't break.
   4. Label the box with a poster about proper fluorescent lamp handling.
3. Choose where your business will recycle the lamps. See list below.
4. Plan who will take the lamps to be recycled when the collection box fills.
5. Let coworkers and janitorial staff know about your lamp recycling, show them the collection area and proper handling instructions.

Where to recycle lamps

1. Contact your property manager. They may recycle fluorescent lamps for tenants.
2. Join a mail-back service.
3. Find a nearby facility that collects and recycles fluorescent lamps. See list below.
4. Search Metro's Find a Recycler tool or Earth911 for other options.

Drop-off locations

• Batteries Plus 
  4812 SE 82nd Avenue
  Clackamas, OR 97266
  503-771-1377
• Pride Disposal Co. 
  13910 SW Tualatin-Sherwood Road
  Sherwood, OR 97140
  503-625-0725

Pick-up services

• Environmental Protective Services 
  503-393-1239
• URT 
  503-722-2236

Retail outlets

Some retail outlets accept compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) only for free recycling. Below is a brief list:

• IKEA
• The Home Depot
• Lowes
• True Value

How is a fluorescent lamp recycled?

• Fluorescent lamps contain glass, metal and mercury. When they are used, the mercury vaporizes and adheres to the glass. The lamp recyclers use special equipment to remove all the mercury from the glass and then recycle the metal, glass and mercury separately.
• Clackamas County thanks businesses that properly dispose of these highly efficient lighting devices.

How to clean up broken lamps

1. Leave area for 15 minutes.
2. Open windows and shut off forced air.
3. Use damp paper towel or wet wipes to collect material (never vacuum).
4. Put all material in a sealed plastic bag.
5. Place sealed bag in trash.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers detailed instructions for cleaning up a broken CFL, including the differences between cleaning up hard surfaces versus carpeting or rugs.

Additional recycling resources

We offer a variety of free recycling services and resources for businesses. Email us at lis@clackamas.us or call 503-742-4458.

Have other hazardous waste?

Contact Metro's Recycling Information Hotline at 503-234-3000 for options near you.

If your business generates less than 220 pounds of hazardous waste, you can enroll in Metro's Very Small Quantity Generator (VSQG) program.

Inclement Weather Conditions

Franchisees may postpone collections when weather conditions make driving hazardous. In situations where garbage, recycling, and yard debris collections are all postponed to subsequent week(s), franchisees will give priority to the collection of garbage. 

Garbage

The franchisee will pick up postponed collections of garbage as weather and road conditions permit. If collection must be postponed to a subsequent week(s), the cumulative amount of the current subscribed service level will be collected.

Recycling

Collection will be postponed to a subsequent week(s) as weather and road conditions permit. Resumption of recycling collection may be postponed past the following week if there have been several days of inclement weather and the franchisee is using available staff and trucks to catch up on garbage collections.

Yard Debris

Collection will be postponed to a subsequent week(s) as weather and road conditions permit. Resumption of yard debris collection may be postponed past the following week if there have been several days of inclement weather and the franchisee is using available staff and trucks to catch up on garbage and recycling collections. When collection resumes the cumulative amount of the current subscribed service level will be collected.

Notification of Postponed Collection

The franchisee will notify Clackamas County by 10 a.m. by telephone or e-mail on the days that collection will be postponed. The franchisee will update their voicemail and web site at least daily, notifying customers of postponed collections.

Billing

Postponed collections are not considered missed collections, because the service is rendered in due course. Credits are not available for postponed collections due to inclement weather.

From the Franchisee General Responsibilities section of the Administrative Regulations for Clackamas County Solid Waste and Recycling Collection Services for Franchisee and Customer.

Between April and June of 2018, we were in a number of neighborhoods to provide individualized feedback on how residents were recycling. You may have found an informational tag on your cart when you retrieved it from the curb. The tags recognized recycling carts that contained properly sorted recycling or alerted residents to items that did not belong in their recycling cart.

What were the project results?

During the first week, only 37 percent of homes across all neighborhoods received a ‘Nice Job’ tag. By the sixth and final week of the study, that number had risen to 54 percent. The most common items people mistakenly recycled included plastic bags, paper towels, to-go cups for hot and cold drinks, and plastic ‘clamshell’ containers. None of these items belong in curbside recycling.

County staff will use the lessons learned during this pilot project to inform future cart tagging efforts.

View the final cart tagging project report: Clackamas County Single-Family Residential Recycling Cart Tagging Project (07/24/18)

Why did we do this project?

The presence of non-accepted materials in recycling has been an ongoing issue. For example, a 2015 study found that, in our region, nine percent of the materials placed in single-family recycling actually belonged in the garbage.

Due to changes in global recycling markets, the cost to process recycling has risen significantly. The most important contribution you can make is to put only approved materials in your recycling. By recycling correctly, you help keep recycling quality up and costs down, all while keeping valuable materials out of the landfill.

How were carts evaluated?

Clackamas County contracted with an authorized third-party contractor who specializes in waste and recycling. The contractor observed what was in recycling carts, then left the appropriate feedback tag. They did not remove items. They followed professional standards set by the County. Data collected, including any information pertaining to recycling at your household, is confidential and anonymous. You may remove the tag placed on your cart.

What can and cannot be recycled at home?

Even if you believe you are recycling right, it is always good to review the recycling list.

Questions?

If you have questions about recycling, the project, or have concerns, please contact us at 503-742-4463.

Many schools aren't easily able to recycle milk cartons. As a result, most milk cartons from schools end up in the garbage. The transition from milk cartons to dispensers and washable cups can cut cafeteria waste in half, on top of reducing milk waste and students drinking more milk! Learn more about milk dispensers in Clackamas County schools.

Posters and Containers

To request posters and containers, contact Leaders in Sustainability at greenbiz@clackamas.us.

Posters

Containers