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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 14, 2018)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2018 Rejected by China, more recyclables head to landfills those recycling carts was filled with trash — stuff that has never been recyclable,” said company spokeswoman Laura Leebrick. “We were rolling along thinking every- thing was fine because noth- ing was getting rejected. We didn’t realize how much gar- bage was in there.” Too contaminated for shipment By CASSANDRA PROFITA Oregon Public Broadcasting Over the past year, more than 10,000 tons of Oregon’s recycling have been dumped in landfills because there was nowhere else for them to go. It’s one of the conse- quences of new restrictions on shipping recyclables to China. Across the Northwest, more and more places are raising recycling fees, reduc- ing and even canceling curb- side collection and sending formerly recyclable material to the dump. Last year, the world’s biggest buyer of recycla- bles announced a tough new set of rules for how clean its recycling imports need to be as part of a policy called National Sword, which aims to reduce pollution. Since January, the Chinese government is only allow- ing recycling imports with 0.5 percent contamination or less. That means there can be virtually no plastic mixed in with the paper recycling, no food waste left in plastic con- tainers and no garbage in the recycling. U.S. recycling companies say they can’t meet that stan- dard — in part because there’s too much trash mixed in with the recycling they’re pick- ing up at the curb. Prohib- ited items such as Styrofoam, diapers, garden hoses, plas- tic bags and coffee cups still show up in curbside recycling bins far too often. Peter Spendelow, natu- ral resource specialist at the Oregon Department of Envi- ronmental Quality, said there Rising rates Jes Burns/Oregon Public Broadcasting Rogue Waste System’s Scott Fowler, left, and Laura Leebrick, center, have nowhere to send about 2,000 tons of baled and stacked commingled recycling. used to be Chinese buy- ers who would accept highly contaminated loads of recy- cling from the U.S. and sort through it themselves. But the Chinese government has put an end to that practice. “Countries don’t want to be a dumping ground for the rest of the world,” he said. With fewer buyers for U.S. recyclables, many companies have asked the state of Ore- gon for permission to dump the excess in landfills. Some places have limited the items they will accept in curbside bins to things they know they can sell while others have suspended curbside recycling altogether. Recycling companies have found some new buyers in other countries, but those countries might not be able to handle the volume that China once took. “The situation is still fairly dire,” Spendelow said. “There aren’t a whole lot of markets for mixed plastics.” Nowhere to go So far, many places, including Portland, are still collecting the same curbside recycling items they always have — even though some of that material has nowhere to go but landfills. “We want to keep col- lecting it so that when mar- kets come back and they are able to move this material Astoria schools see some improvement in attendance By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian The Astoria School District saw chronic absenteeism drop by more than 8 percent in the first year of its Strive for Five attendance campaign. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing more than 10 days of school in a year. Strive for Five challenged students to not miss more than five days, an untracked aspirational goal. More than one-quarter of Astoria students were chron- ically absent in 2016-17, com- pared to less than 17.7 percent this past school year. Nearly 20 percent of Oregon students were chronically absent in 2016-17. John Jacob Astor Elemen- tary School recorded the big- gest drop, going from more than one-quarter of students chron- ically absent in 2016-17 to 13.6 percent last school year, the lowest among the district’s four campuses. Kate Gohr, principal at Astor, said parents are start- ing to understand the impor- tance of kindergarten and how it isn’t the same as when they were in school. “I still have many kids — to me, many — who are miss- ing 30 days, 33 days,” Gohr said. “That is so many days, and most of them are academically at-risk.” More then 14 percent of kin- dergartners were still chron- ically absent. Melissa Linder, the school district’s curriculum director, said the district should focus more on kindergarten atten- dance because of the correlation with graduation. Superintendent Craig Hop- pes said the school district has also found a clear correlation between kindergarten atten- dance, assessment scores and reading skills at third grade. Reading at grade level by third grade correlates heavily with future academic success. There’s still a lot the district can do to improve, Hoppes said. Astoria High School, where more than 28 percent of stu- dents were chronically absent in 2016-17, still recorded more than one-quarter of students missing more than 10 days a year. Astoria Middle School was at 17.1 percent, and Lewis and Clark Elementary at 14.6 percent. “At the elementary level, it’s an adult concern, a parent con- cern,” he said. “At the middle school, it could be both. At the high school, it’s more of a kid concern.” Lowering absenteeism is a lengthy process, Hoppes said, and the school district’s goal is WANTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 Clatsop Post 12 Friday, June 15th Roast Beef Dinne r $8.00 4Pm ‘til gone “Karaoke Dave” at 6PM ************************ Saturday, June 16th Father’s Day Brunch 11-1PM or gone • Free to all Fathers • All others - $5.00 ASTORIA AMERICAN LEGION 1132 Exchange Street • 325-5771 to have each school under 10 percent of students chronically absent. The Astoria School Board on Wednesday also approved a $20 million operating budget, including nearly $11.7 million for construction, $7.3 million in student supports and $700,000 in reserve. The budget accounts for a 1.5 wage increase, two more contract days and improved benefits for teachers and administrators. they don’t have to re-educate everyone on how to do it,” Spendelow said. “But we can only make that argument for so long.” The Department of Envi- ronmental Quality is still approving landfill disposal of recycling that doesn’t have a market, but the agency might not allow that to continue much longer. A new committee of recy- cling leaders across Oregon is meeting regularly to discuss possible solutions and long- term changes to the state’s recycling systems, such as restricting the kinds of mate- rials that can go in curbside recycling bins, separating paper from plastic at the curb, improving sorting capabilities at recycling facilities or tick- eting people for their recy- cling mistakes. In Clackamas County, officials have started placing “oops” tags on recycling bins with the wrong materials in them. In March, Rogue Dis- posal & Recycling in Med- ford slashed its list of what’s recyclable to just four items after stockpiling and dumping thousands of tons of unwanted paper, plastic and glass. The company did an audit of the material they were col- lecting in curbside recycling bins and found nearly a quar- ter of it didn’t belong there. “Twenty-four percent of Portland just raised gar- bage collection rates $2.55 per month in large part to cover the added costs of recycling. Bruce Walker, recycling program manager for Port- land, said recycling com- panies used to make some money by selling recyclable materials, and that would off- set the cost of curbside col- lection. Now, they’re paying companies to take recycla- ble materials more than it would cost to send them to the landfill. “They get an invoice instead of getting a check,” Walker said. “This is the first time ever the numbers have gone so far above the cost of landfilling. No one expected it to get this bad.” The latest study found about 9 percent of what Port- landers put in their recycling bins is actually trash. Reduc- ing that contamination rate could help recycling compa- nies find new buyers for the city’s recyclables. “Clearly, we need to do a better job of reaching out to the public to remind people that getting creative with recy- cling is not helping,” Walker said. “Wanting to recycle is a good thing, but putting things that don’t belong there only adds to the program costs. Somebody has to remove that plastic cup you put in there and throw it away. It still goes to the landfill.” County to pave over 3 miles of roads By JACK HEFFERNAN The Daily Astorian Portions of several Clatsop County roads will undergo paving this summer. A total of 3 miles along Ridge Road, DeLaura Beach Lane, Walluski Loop, Abbott Road, and Kylester Lane will be repaved. Bayview Tran- sit Mix Inc. received a $524,105 contract — approved unanimously Wednesday by county commissioners — to per- form the project. Work is expected to be completed by September. In other business Wed- nesday, commissioners: • Adopted changes to county Planning Commis- sion bylaws. Meetings will no longer be required to start at 10 a.m. or finish by 5 p.m. • Hosted a presenta- tion of the Government Finance Officers Associ- ation’s annual financial report award to the county Budget and Finance Department. The award is based on the efficiency and readability of the county’s annual budget report. The county earned the award for the second con- secutive year. “This is a significant undertaking. They’re my workhorses, and I can’t do this without them,” Bud- get and Finance Director Monica Steele said in front of the department’s three other staff members. Happy 243 rd Birthday
