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SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2016
ASK A MASTER RECYCLER
Help promote recycling beyond the 4 ‘Rs’
S USY L ACER , M ASTER R ECYCLER
A MONTHLY COLUMN OF RECYCLING
INFORMATION PROVIDED BY
F LORENCE M ASTER R ECYCLERS
For the Siuslaw News
Q. I already practice Reduce,
Reuse, Recycle and Repurpose.
What else can I do to promote
recycling?
A. One of the most important
aspects of successful and sus-
tainable recycling is consumer
demand for products made with
recycled content.
If you are already doing your
part to put recycled materials
back into the source stream for
manufacturers, then the best
thing you can do to promote
recycling is to “close the loop”
and purchase products made
with recycled content — as
high of a percentage as you can
find.
If the stores don’t carry items
made with recycled content,
please ask for it. The market
responds
to
consumer
demands. The more we ask for
products made with a high per-
centage of recycled content, the
more options we will have and
the more effective the recycling
industry will become.
Q. Are batteries recyclable?
Or do I throw them in the trash?
Should I save them for a
Hazardous Waste event?
A. Great questions! It is kind
of confusing with all of the dif-
ferent batteries currently avail-
able. Let’s break battery types
down by where they can be
recycled or disposed of locally.
Curbside Recycling: Lead
acid automobile batteries,
including those for motorcy-
cles, boats and ATVs, are recy-
clable curbside (no leaks,
please). Oregon state law pro-
hibits discarding these batteries
in the garbage.
Florence Transfer Station
Recycling: The above lead acid
batteries can also be taken to
the Transfer Station for recy-
cling at no charge. In addition,
button batteries, rechargeable
batteries, NiCad, Lithium,
Silver Oxide and mercury bat-
teries and alkaline batteries pro-
duced before 1996, are all
accepted for recycling at the
Transfer
Station,
2820
Rhododendron Drive.
Florence City Hall Self-
Serve
Recycle
Center:
Rechargeable batteries are also
accepted for recycling at the
bins in the lobby at City Hall,
250 Highway 101.
Household
Hazardous
Waste Collection: There is one
type of battery, Lithium-
Polymer, that should be taken
to the next Household
Hazardous Waste (HHW) col-
lection at the Florence Transfer
Station.
The next event will be held
April 15 and 16; or visit the
year-round HHW Facility in
Glenwood. Call 541-682-4120
to schedule.
Lithium-Polymer batteries
are often used in iPads, tablets,
thin cell phones and remote
control toys.
They can also be labeled as
LiPo, LIP, Li-poly, etc.; they
typically carry a “Do Not
Discard” warning on the label,
or the symbol of a garbage can
with a line through it.
These batteries have grown
in use recently because they are
lightweight and can be shaped
to accommodate a variety of
products. Lithium-Polymer bat-
teries are encased in plastic or
foil. If the outer plastic or foil
covering is compromised, a
damaged Lithium-Polymer bat-
tery that still contains a charge
can react to moisture in the air
and produce heat, smoke and
flame.
If charged Lithium-Polymer
batteries are discarded as
garbage, this poses a threat for
solid waste handling from curb-
side to landfill. Care should be
taken to avoid damaging the
casing of Lithium-Polymer bat-
teries.
Place these batteries in a
zipped food storage bag before
taking to a Household
Hazardous Waste collection.
Garbage: The only batteries
that should be discarded as
trash are alkaline batteries man-
ufactured after 1996 (size
AAA-D), including square
lantern batteries.
Helpful hint: if the battery
has a date stamped on it, it was
manufactured after 1996.
Alkaline batteries are presently
not cost effective to recycle and
do not pose a hazard in land-
fills.
Please note, it is important to
keep all battery types intact.
Handle with care and avoid
crushing the battery or damag-
ing its covering.
Q. I was told it’s illegal to
put any electronics in the
garbage now. Is that true?
A. Oregon state law pro-
C AR C HRONICLES —
B Y C AL A PPLEBEE
A
fter investing a whole
sum of $7 in my first
automobile, the 1953
Chevy sedan in the last story, it
took me a while to scrape
together enough cash from my
milk-chores money to buy my
next adventure vehicle.
And like the first car, my
second car came from my own
back yard, literally.
The Hill farm house, next to
the milk barn down the road a
piece from our main house,
was rented at the time by
another area farm family, and
sitting in their back driveway
was a white four-door Rambler
American.
It had been sitting idle for
quite some time, had a cracked
windshield, and quite honestly,
was kind of ugly. In the years
since, I have seen some of the
two-door wagons of this same
vintage model at car shows,
some as resto-mods, and they
really looked great incorporat-
ing a little art-deco styling with
stereo components (no speak-
ers) free of charge; all items
must be intact, leave cords
attached, no covers or packag-
ing, maximum of seven items
per visit.
Florence Master Recyclers
(MR) are part of the Lane
County Master Recycler
Program, a service of the coun-
ty’s Public Works Waste Man-
agement Division since 2002.
The mission of the MR program
is to bridge the gap between
awareness and action by moti-
vating people to reduce solid
waste at home, work and play.
This monthly column answers
commonly asked recycling
questions. For more recycling
information, visit www.ci.
florence.or.us/building/recy-
cling or www.lanecounty.org/
Departments/PW/WMD/
Recycle or follow Master
Recyclers of Florence on
Facebook.
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An all-American story
Special to the Siuslaw News
hibits disposing of specific
types of electronics in the
garbage. This includes comput-
ers, laptops, TVs and monitors
(anything with a viewing area
that is more than four inches
measured diagonally, including
phones/tablets).
These items are recyclable at
the Florence Transfer Station
free of charge.
The Oregon E-Cycles
Program, sponsored by elec-
tronics manufacturers, provides
free recycling for printers, key-
boards and mice, as well as
computers, monitors and TVs.
All of these items, in-tact only,
are recyclable free of charge at
the Transfer Station.
A limit of seven items per
visit applies; no equipment that
is intended for commercial/
industrial use.
The Transfer Station accepts
phones, fax machines, VCRs,
DVD players, game units, and
the 1950s futuristic look
attempt.
But the four door model
doesn’t really share that
appearance, although one really
cool design feature was the
dash and column shift lever,
which were a combination of
that art-deco and futuristic look
— at least in my mind.
The dash was all metal,
which you certainly don’t see
nowadays. There was a pod
that dropped down from the
dash that held the steering col-
umn at the bottom, and above
the steering column was an
instrument cluster holding all
of the gauges. A faux grille
with chrome strips stretched
across the rest of the dash
housing vents, a blank for a
radio, and the ‘American’ name
badge.
I paid a whopping $50 for
my 1960 model, which was the
last year of the first generation
Rambler American model,
which was produced starting in
1958 and ran through 1969 —
which, coincidentally, was also
the year I graduated — barely
— from high school.
In 1960, American Motors
Corporation, or AMC, placed
fourth among the domestic
brands with 7.5 percent of the
U.S. market according to one
source. When new, my
American beauty cost some-
where around $1,800, which
given my purchase price of $50
only eight years later, doesn’t
bode well for them holding
their value!
It came with a 90 horsepow-
er flathead, which I eventually
found had a bad head gasket
and evolved into a cracked
head.
But not before one notewor-
thy trip.
Production numbers for U.S.
autos in 1960 vary between a
little more than 6 million units,
to just under 8 million units.
That may be due to variations
in what the sources list; for
example, all vehicle production
vs. passenger cars only.
Going with the 6,097,851
number produces the 7.5 per-
cent cited above. One point I
found interesting is that the
source listed 18 different auto
makers for 1960.
However, that’s without tak-
ing into account that some of
those listed individually were
actually within families —
such as Edsel, Mercury,
Lincoln and Ford — which
were all from one family but
listed as four different makers.
Likewise, Metropolitan was
listed separately from Rambler;
all of the Mopar products as
well as all GM products were
listed as separate makes. Still
though, even when listing all
the separate models under the
iconic manufacturers, we still
end up with four major players:
GM, FoMoCo., Mopar and
AMC, as well as a couple sur-
viving independents,
Studebaker and Checker.
One hot Sunday after church
I had convinced Mom and Dad
Hill to take my little Rambler
Over
41 yrs
Experien ce
4981 Hwy. 101, Complex B
to Caldwell for Sunday dinner
at Uncle Dick’s house.
After Mom Hill grilled me
on if it would make the trip
there and back, I assured her it
would — and off we went in
the Idaho heat.
The Rambler American
would have made it ... if it had
enough gas. However, the gas
gauge also didn’t work and
about two-thirds of the way
there, we jerked to a stop on
the side of the road.
I hoofed it to a phone to call
Uncle Dick for gas while Mom
Hill steamed in the summer
heat sitting in the back seat.
She never rode with me again.
Eventually, the cracked head
on the little white car brought
its demise and it joined the
growing collection of cars in
the boneyard. I honestly don’t
recall what became of it even-
tually, but I still have fond
memories of that little car.
As I researched statistics for
this article, the online images
stirred memories as well. You
don’t see an original Rambler
American on the road much
these days.
But when you do, it’s easily
recognizable by its Volvo-like
resemblance.
Still a little ugly but still
likeable.
Safe travels!
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