THE JOYS OF
CO-MINGLING
It’s hard to miss Sanipac’s new co-min-
gling carts waiting at the curb each week. The
carts are larger than the yard debris bins and
are used for recycling paper, cardboard,
metal and plastic. Sanipac employees and
customers have mixed responses to this new
recycling system.
One Sanipac truck driver thinks, “It’s a
good system. Easy for me and the people.
A lot of people aren’t sure how
to use it yet but I’ve worked
here nine years. They’ll figure it
out.” Another driver, who picks
up the old recycling boxes,
talked while he hand-sorted
through the newspaper, maga-
zines and plastic that
are no longer sup-
posed to go into
the glass-only
bins.
“It
needs to be
done right. In
the city people
don’t
under-
stand.”
This worker is
concerned that the
new bins “will lay
off people. The ones
that are gonna keep
their jobs think it’s
great. Talk to some-
one who’s worried
about his job and you might
hear otherwise. I have mixed emotions.”
Both Sanipac employees refrained from giv-
ing their names.
Some Eugene residents find the cart’s size
and mobility awkward. Sue Thompson finds
the cart “completely unruly. This morning I
nearly fell down my driveway trying to ma-
neuver the big, heavy thing.” Cheryl Gross,
on the other hand, finds that the “big bin is
easy to move. I don’t have to bend down and
pick up that heavy old bin.”
However, Gross is confused by the sched-
ule: “Does my garbage get picked up one
week and my recycling another? I still don’t
know. I’m just putting them out each week.
Maybe it’ll make sense soon.” Sanipac’s
website says that recycling pick-up is always
the same day that garbage is picked up. But in
another part of their website Sanipac con-
cedes that “with our new recycling system
there are some areas where this [trash and re-
cycling pickup on opposite weeks] will hap-
pen.” Some customers get two schedules in
the mail: one for garbage and yard waste, an-
other for recycling.
Thompson points out that the cart can be
heavy when full. Some Eugene residents
solve that problem by leaving the cart at the
curb or roadside if there’s no sidewalk. “Not
a pleasant sight on the way to work,” says
John Hagan. UO student Tom Brown and his
housemates “just leave it out all the time. It’s
great ’cause we can fill it up really full. And
we needed the space for all our glass bottles
and stuff.” The practice of leaving the cart at
the curb appears to be particularly common
in student housing areas.
According to the Sanipac website, the
carts were chosen because “Customers told
us they didn’t like sorting all their materials,
they wanted a lid on their recycling container,
8 FEBRUARY 5, 2004
and they wanted to be able to roll it, not carry
it.” Co-mingling recycling enables customers
to dump paper, cardboard, plastic and alu-
minum (not glass) into one container. The
mixed recycling is transported to an auto-
mated sorting firm in Portland. The company
touts the co-mingling system as enabling
“fewer emissions along with less road wear.”
The website does not address the emissions
and road wear involved in transporting
Eugene’s recycling to Portland.
— Kate Storm
THIS STREETCAR’S
NAMED UNDESIRABLE
City Councilors David Kelly,
Scott Meisner and Bonny Bettman
want city staff to study a trolley as
part of updating the city’s Central
Area Transportation Study (CATS)
plan.
Portland’s new down-
town streetcar has
been a popular suc-
cess, tourist attrac-
tion and symbol of
the city’s commitment
to livability. But
Eugene’s city staff con-
tinue to oppose the idea
of a trolley here. A trolley
“would not provide cost-
effective transportation
service,” city engineer
Chris Henry and planner Allen
Lowe wrote to the City Council last
month. The staff cited an earlier
TransPlan study in which planning staff had
opposed a trolley as more appropriate for
larger/denser cities and difficult to obtain fed-
eral funding for. Staff recommended that the
city pursue bus rapid transit instead.
Eugene actually had an extensive trolley
system from 1891 to 1927 when the city was
only a fraction of the size it is today. In
TransPlan hearings, trolley advocates criti-
cized planners for a bias against clean, attrac-
tive and fun trolleys. — Alan Pittman
EFN, UNION REACH
LABOR AGREEMENT
Eugene Free Community Network
(www.efn.org) announced this week that the
nonprofit internet service provider has en-
tered into its first labor agreement with its
employees, who are represented by the Lane
County Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW).
The contract was ratified in late
December, and signed Jan. 13 by Paul
Harrison, president of the board of directors
of EFN, and union stewards. “We’re pleased
that our discussions with our union employ-
ees have resulted in this new agreement,”
says Harrison.
The agreement provides for collaborative
decision-making in the workplace, job secu-
rity, arbitration of disputes and a commitment
to move toward paying a living wage for
every employee. IWW members include sys-
tems administrators, network specialists, and
programmers.
Union rep Patrick Wade says the living
wage agreement is still on hold. “We reached
agreement about living wages, with the ob-
jective of bringing everyone’s wages up to
$11 an hour,” Wade says, but a “combination
of service crises due to outages at our former
upstream provider, and financial pinch, have
obliged us to put delivery of the living wage
scale on hold until we can get our finances on
firmer ground.” He says the union is hoping
to “make progress on that by mid-2004.”
Nearly all non-management employees are
represented by the union.
Harrison says the agreement is another
positive development at EFN, following the
ISP’s local dial-up expansion throughout the
Willamette Valley and its move to becoming
a bilingual ISP. — TJT
EUGENE FIREFIGHTERS
SICK 14 DAYS A YEAR
Eugene firefighters take almost twice as
many sick days as other city employees, ac-
cording to a city study.
Eugene firefighters call in sick an average
of about 14 days per year, according to city
data. Other city staff average about eight days
of sick leave per year.
Compared to 42 other similar cities,
Eugene non-firefighter workers are about av-
erage. But the firefighters push the citywide
average to about 7 percent higher sick time
usage.
Sick time usage in the private sector is
generally much less because private employ-
ers don’t offer equally generous paid sick
time policies.
City Manager Dennis Taylor told the City
Council last month that the city disciplines
staff for abusing sick leave and has negoti-
ated with the city firefighter union to estab-
lish a joint labor management committee to
address sick leave issues. — AP
ONRC TO CELEBRATE
THREE DECADES
Thirty years is a long time to be working
to save the environment. But that’s how long
the Oregon Natural Resources Council has
been plugging away, first as the Oregon
Wilderness Coalition and then as the re-
named ONRC.
Today, the ONRC can take credit for help-
ing to protect more than three million acres of
public land in Oregon, halting construction of
the Elk Creek Dam on the Rogue River and
playing a pivotal role in protecting much of
the nation’s remaining old-growth forests.
The 30th anniversary of the organization
will be celebrated Feb. 21 in Eugene, where
the ONRC’s main office was located for the
first half of its existence. The event will be
from 6 to 8 pm at LCC’s Conference Center,
Bldg. 19.
The celebration will include a vegetarian
dinner prepared by the LCC Culinary Arts
Program, a no-host bar, live music by party
dance band Ruckus, guest speakers, stories
and reminiscences. A silent auction will be
held, as well. Admission is $35; reservations
are required and must be made by Feb. 13.
Sponsors are Emerald Valley Kitchen,
Eugene Weekly, KLCC, Nova Craft Canoe
and Paul’s Bicycle Way of Life.
For details, call ONRC’s Eugene office at
344-0675 or visit the group’s website at:
www.onrc.org
ACTIVIST ALERT
• Community activists who organized two
years ago to oppose an Enron natural gas
power plant in the Coburg area are reorganiz-
ing to fight a new proposal for an even larger,
900-megawatt plant in the area. Meetings are
planned at 6 pm Friday, Feb. 6 at EWEB,
500 E. 4th Ave. in Eugene; and at 6 pm
Monday, Feb. 9 at the Springfield City
Council chambers, 225 5th St. Speakers will
include land use consultant Eben Fodor, for-
mer County Commissioner Tom Lininger,
and David Monk of the Oregon Toxics
Alliance. Carolyn Kinnan of Save Our Valley
will moderate the discussion For more infor-
mation, call Carolyn at 683-4579 or visit
www.saveourvalley.com
• The $34.8 million urban renewal plan
for the Riverfront Research Park goes to pub-
lic hearing before the City Council at 7:30 pm
Monday, Feb. 9 in the Council Chambers.
Adoption of the ordinance, if approved,
would be at the Feb. 23 meeting. For more in-
formation, visit www/ci.eugene.or.us/ or call
682-5533.
• A joint public hearing with local city
councils and county commissioners on
Eugene-Springfield Metro Plan amendments
will be at 6:30 pm Tuesday, Feb. 10 at the
Eugene Public Library. The Metro Plan in-
volves long-range planning for land use, pub-
lic facilities, natural resources, housing,