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OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
RECYCLE: Umatilla County’s goal is CRASHES: Morrow
to recycle 20 percent of all solid waste County reported 10
wrecks on I-84 Sunday
Continued from 1A
were stacked in the middle of
the yard, evidence of all the
area residents who got new
appliances for Christmas.
The freon will be removed
from them and the metal
“guts” will be salvaged for
scrap metal.
The transfer station
doesn’t recycle the materials
onsite, but rather collects and
processes them for shipping
to various recyclers like
Clayton Ward Recycling
in Kennewick (plastics)
and RS Davis Recycling in
Hermiston (metals), which
turn them back into raw
materials that can be sold to
manufacturers in the United
States and abroad.
“That’s a market that we
sometimes have to play,”
Kik said, noting that a few
years ago the value of card-
board plummeted for a while
thanks to market forces in
China, where much of Amer-
ica’s recycled cardboard
eventually ends up. “A lot of
places don’t have the ability
to stockpile for long, but we
have acres we can put it on.”
Sanitary Disposal doesn’t
have a compost heap, but it
does transfer food waste from
customers like Wal-Mart to
Pendleton Sanitary for that
purpose.
Non-recyclable garbage
is pushed into trailers bound
for the Finley Buttes Landfi ll
near Boardman, but Sanitary
Disposal employees are
inventive in using even
“garbage” one last time. Old
mattresses are folded in half
by the claw of the excavator
and used to sweep rubbish
from the platform.
“We use them as our
brooms,” Kik said. “It keeps
the fl oor nice and clean.”
Recyclables are sorted
using various techniques.
The public might not differ-
entiate between tin cans and
aluminum cans, for example,
but if employees put a load
of cans in the industrial
wood chipper, the same
magnet that pulls nails from
the wood chips also pulls out
the tinned steel cans from the
aluminum ones, which are
not magnetic.
Continued from 1A
as of 4 p.m. Five of those
crashes on I-82 and I-84,
with a few on local roads.
UCFD employees said
so far there have been no
major injuries. Monday
as of 2:45 p.m., Echo Fire
Department had responded
to three rollover accidents.
Schools districts that
were supposed to be back
in session, including
Morrow County, Stanfi eld
and Ione, canceled class
because of the weather.
Police, fi re and ambu-
lance crews in Morrow
County spent the fi rst
night of 2017 responding
to several slide-offs and
crashes.
The Morrow County
Sheriff’s Offi ce alone
reported
10
wrecks
on Interstate 84 near
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Bails of cardboard await being shipped for recycling at the Sanitary Disposal facility
Friday outside of Hermiston.
A big question Sanitary
Disposal gets is why the city
of Hermiston doesn’t do a
curbside recycling program
where residents could have
their recyclables picked up
instead of taking them to the
transfer station. The city did
study the issue in 2014, but
based on interest surveys and
cost analysis, determined
that curbside recycling
would double Sanitary
Disposal’s labor costs while
only increasing recycling
rates by about 2 percent,
which would not allow the
transfer station to recoup the
extra money.
“It’s all about volume,”
Kik said. “It would have to
be a mandatory thing, and
I’ve never been a guy who
likes mandatory things.”
Gina Miller, code enforce-
ment offi cer for Umatilla
County, said the Department
of Environmental Quality
monitors the amount of
recycling that happens in
each county and sets goals
for them based on population
density and other factors.
Umatilla County’s goal is
to recycle 20 percent of all
solid waste, but Miller said
the county has consistently
surpassed that goal by 10
percent or more every year.
Recycling saves irre-
placeable resources, saves
energy, saves room in land-
fi lls and provides cheaper
materials for manufacturers,
so Miller said her offi ce
is trying to get people to
recycle more as they clean
up their properties. Last year
the county got a grant to run
a hazardous waste collection
event and Miller said she is
always happy to give people
information about ways to
recycle and compost.
“We’re trying to extend
more awareness and educa-
tion,” she said. “It just has not
been a part of our culture.”
Kik said there is defi nitely
more work to be done to
help people be better about
reusing, re-gifting and recy-
cling.
“A lot of the stuff that gets
thrown away you just shake
your head and ask why,” he
said.
Each transfer station
reports to the DEQ how
many tons of each material
were processed and to
which recycling companies
they were sent. In 2015,
Sanitary Disposal reported
it collected about 11,800
tons of material plus 2,370
gallons of used motor oil
(bottles and cans returned to
the BottleDrop Center for a
deposit are not handled by
Sanitary Disposal). Kik said
the amounts don’t change
too much from year to year
— most people are pretty
consistent with the amount
of waste they produce.
Currently
Hermiston
residents can drop off their
recycling at the transfer
station, 81144 N. Highway
395, or the recycling center
at 22 W. Harper Road. Kik
said Sanitary Disposal is still
looking for someone willing
to let them put recycling
containers on property
somewhere else in town to
replace the former station
on Orchard Avenue that was
pushed out by the expansion
of the current Hermiston
School District building.
He said he’s glad resi-
dents are using the stations,
although there is “a little bit
of laziness” on some peoples’
part about not fl attening
boxes or dumping things in
the wrong containers.
When the big metal recy-
cling containers get too beat
up, they get sent to Sanitary
Disposal one last time,
where they are processed as
scrap metal and sent to be
recycled.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Boardman on Sunday.
The fi rst crash came at
4:03 p.m. when a vehicle
hit a guardrail at milepost
153 on the eastbound side
for the freeway. And at
6:12 p.m. an eastbound
car ran off the interstate
near Boardman, rolled
and came to a stop in the
median.
An ambulance took one
person from that crash to
Good Shepherd Medical
Center, Hermiston. Ambu-
lances transported others
from crashes as the night
went on.
The
most
serious
appeared to happen around
11:40 p.m. when an
eastbound vehicle rolled
and also ended up in the
median. Bulletins stated
ambulances transported
more than one patient to
Good Shepherd.
TAI CHI - MOVING FOR
BETTER BALANCE
FREE class to work on balance, strengthen muscles,
improve posture and core strength. Great for all ages!
Monday & Wednesday Starting January 16th
Basic/Beginners class: 9-10am
Advanced Class: 10-11am
GSMC Wellness Center (behind the hospital)
Call 541-567-2185 or 541-667-3509 to register
BODY & BALANCE
FREE class using the Bal-A-Vis-X approach to
safely improve balance, movement, and strengthen
body control. Great for all ages and fitness levels!
Monday & Wednesday Starting Jan. 4th
11:00 - 12:00pm
Call 541-567-2185 or 541-667-3509 to register
BEGINNER & INTERMEDIATE
BANDS CLASSES:
Strengthen & improve flexibility and overall health
& balance.
Tuesday & Thursdays Starting January 3rd
Beginners class: 8:15-8:45am
Intermediate Class: 9-9:30am
GSMC Wellness Center (behind the hospital)
Call Kathy Thomas, 541-667-3400 x3050
Information or to register
call (541) 667-3509
or email
healthinfo@gshealth.org
www.gshealth.org
Thank You!
From The Sales Crew At Rogers Toyota Of Hermiston
Chris Klein
Jesus Cardenas
Hailey Cox
Outside Sales/Fleet Manager
Sales Associate
Internet Manager
Sales Associate
Sales Associate
Sales Associate
Sales Associate
Brandon Ferguson
Sales Manager
Rand Sacry
Doug Endicott
Raymond Aguilar
Ross Russell
Alyssa Garcilazo
Gloria Velasco
Business/Sales Manager
Sales Associate
Sales Associate
Used Car Manager
Business Manager
Sales Associate
Mike Frink
Shawn Lifferth Caressa Bastian Tony Rodriguez