Field Trips Part II

Alright I promised myself I would have some follow through on something today. I decided this was much more enjoyable then cleaning the house.

Free Geek  1731 SE 10th Ave



This was our first stop on our 2nd field trip. I really enjoyed touring this place. They are doing amazing things on keeping e-waste (electronic waste) out of our landfills or even worse in third world countries. Starting January 1, 2010 disposal of computers, tv's and monitors will be prohibited in Oregon. Free Geek is a drop off site for the Oregon E-Cycles program but also so much more. Free Geeks mission is to reuse, recycle and educate the public on computers. One way they accomplish their mission is with two programs. The first one gives people a free computer with monitor after volunteering 24hrs of service. These are great refurbish computers. 2nd program teaches people how to build their own computer. If you don't want to volunteer to get a computer they have a store you can purchase from. I dropped off a few computer parts that we no longer needed. They will either use the parts to refurnish a computer for someone or break down the parts into individual pieces and recycle it safely. 


Community Warehouse 3969 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd

Community Warehouse collects and redistributes donated furniture and household goods to families in need with no charge to them. The warehouse is open to the public to donate but they go through agencies to distribute the items. One of the main agencies they work with is the Department of Human Services (DHS). One great way individuals, groups or offices can do to help this nonprofit is to hold collection drives. Items most often in demand are blankets, towels, twin mattresses and kitchen items. Community Warehouse can pick-up the items but currently only go out to 185th in Hillsboro. Next time you do a little spring cleaning or have a garage sale take a look at the items and drop them off at Community Warehouse instead of Goodwill. Nothing against Goodwill but the families that the Community Warehouse serves Goodwill isn't even an option.

SCRAP 2915 NE MLK Jr. Blvd

Now this place is a creative persons dream. SCRAP (School and Community Reuse Action Program) started with a couple of teachers collecting end of the year art supplies to pass along. Now they host their own art classes, no-school day camps for kids and inspiration to artist all over. They sale a bit of everything at very low prices. You can find old magazines, feathers, tiles, fabric, crayons, and so much more. SCRAP is a great place to visit with little ones and also to take unused or unwanted art supplies.


Rebuilding Center 3625 N Mississippi Ave

Corey and I have visited this place a few times. On this field trip I learned more about the passion and mission behind the organization. Sadly I don't remember our guides/founders name but he was very funny and entertaining. The Rebuilding Center helps redirect construction materials from the landfill. They sale doors, door knobs, windows, light fixtures, floor broads etc. This place is huge and in the middle of Mississippi Avenue. The rebuilding center in its self is a showroom of what you can do with the material they sale. The ceiling, doors, walls and floors especially in their offices are made out of old windows and doors. I wish I was that creative. Other services they offer is deconstruction of buildings in a eco-friendly way. Taking the building a part piece by piece to preserve material for reuse. The Rebuilding Center also offers classes in reusing material for household items such as tables or art work. The center is a part of Our United Village whose message is to strengthen neighborhoods in Portland to better support the community. 

At the end of the day I felt the take home message was there should be little material that ends up in our landfills. If we purchase, use, reuse, and donate wisely we should produce very little waste. Just by visiting or in your case reading about these amazing organizations we are now aware of a place to take our computers or buy our next one, donate that unused guest bed, take all those old Altoids tins and where to find the matching light fixture in our houses. If you have any of these items and don't have the time to take them where they could go let me know. I would be more then happy to drop them off for you. Happy reduce, reuse and recycling too you all. 

 

Field Trips

Seems I get on a roll of posting and then fall off. Today I am going to attempt to write about my two Master Recycler field trips. The first field trip was back in September to the Hillsboro Landfill, Metro Central and Eco Trust Building. The second field trip was last weekend we visited Free Geek, Oregon Community Warehouse, SCRAP and Rebuilding Center. Okay here I go.

Hillsboro Landfill
  I sort of have a history with this landfill sounds weird but its true. As a child I lived in the Meadows which was a neighborhood a few blocks away from the landfill. Strange to think my parents felt buying a house near a landfill was a good investment. I also attended elementary and high school in the same area. Another interesting thing putting schools near a landfill. I guess it was perfect since the schools were also near the sewage treatment center and a slew of dairy farms. You never new where the smell was coming from. But I digress. I always thought the Hillsboro Landfill took garbage, your run of the mill neighborhood garbage. Was I shock to discover that it only takes Construction and Demolition waste. Not smelly at all. The main attraction at the landfill is the Material Recovery Facility or MRF (recycling center) I believe it is the only LEED certified MRF in the nation (??) What is LEED certified? It stands for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) that was created by the U.S. Green Building Council as a rating system for green buildings. The MRF used green design from the floor, walls, ceiling all the way up to the lighting of the facility. Contractors or homeowners come and deposit their materials and the workers at the MRF go through it to divert as much recyclable goods as possible from the landfill. You can take toilets, cement, metal and wood to the Hillsboro landfill where they separate and crush up the material to be reused.

Metro Central at 6161 NW 61st Ave, Portland off of highway 30. 
This place is owned by Metro the recycling gurus of Portland. Have questions regrading recycling you can contact them at www.oregonmetro.gov. This is where people can take their hazardous waste to be safely disposed of. If you think you don't have hazardous waste laying around at your house your wrong. Paint, cleaning products, items made out of mercury, propane, pesticides, and compact fluorescent light bulbs are all toxic if they end up in our water systems or soil. Through out the year there are neighborhood drop off sites Metro puts on. Can you believe that they come to you and take your hazardous waste away. I took some old paint there last weekend. I literally drove up, popped my trunk and they collected the material and I was back on the road. And what did they do with my old paint? They actually create 15 different Metro colors out of used paint that you can buy for cheap directly from them or at select Miller paint stores. The paint is Green Seal Certified one of the highest levels of environmental integrity you can get. I have a brochure of the colors if anyone is interested or call 503-234-3000.
  
   Metro is also working towards composting possibilities in Oregon. There is already a Portland Compost program where a few restaurants and grocery stores in Portland participate in. They have their compostable goods collected and temporary dropped off at the transfer station. Where a large truck comes to collect it and take it up to Washington. It has been slow going finding a large enough location and agreeable neighbors to create an Oregon compost facility. There is a misconception that composting is smelly but it isn't true especially on a large scale with all the technology. Corey and I compost using the Metro Earth Machine (sales for $35 at Metro) and don't notice the smell and I have a sensitive nose. 

Eco Trust, Pearl District
Our last stop was at the Eco Trust building in Portland. This building houses the Portland office of Sustainability, a few restaurants and the Patagonia store. It too is a LEED certified building. It reuses a lot of old material and utilizes natural light. I think it is a very beautiful building. You can actually get married there too. 

I think this has been a long enough post so I will end it here. Look for the second installment of field trips on Friday. 

In the spirit of October

Last weekend we went to Seattle to visit friends and family. We stayed at Corey's sister Kinsey's house. We had a great weekend hanging out with our 8 month old nephew Zander. We went to the pumpkin patch together and Corey taught him the OSU cheer. Sadly I left my camera in Seattle so I will have to add pictures later.  

Every time we make a trip to Seattle we wish we had more time. We have so many friends and family up there. This trip we did manage to see my Auntie Pam and her new condo. Always a great time catching up with her. On our way back to Portland we meet up with Corey's high school friend Travis, wife Nomi and their two kids. Travis was the very tall guy in our wedding. They moved back to the west coast last year and like seeing them more now.

Next weekend is our annual pumpkin carving party. It is shaping up to be a good one with lots of new people joining us. In the spirit of Halloween and since I can't add Zander pictures. I thought I would share some past Halloween photos. Enjoy!

Master Recycler

I am in the process of becoming a Master Recycler. What is a Master Recycler you ask will this is from their website
           
        Master Recyclers take a eight-week course on the latest information on waste prevention and recycling.  They then share this information to their neighbors in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington county. There are more than 900 Master Recyclers, volunteering more than 20,000 hours. Each Master Recycler must payback 30hrs of service.

For the past 4 Wednesdays from 6:30 pm till 9:30 pm at night I have been learning all about waste reduction and recycling. I have 4 weeks left and one more field trip. Our first field trip was to a MRF (Materials Recovery Facility) and a dry waste landfill. Taking this course has inspired me to clean up our recycling area at home and make it more organize. We have a box for scrap paper, a bin for glass ONLY, plastic and aluminum and another for paper and cardboard. The other two bins are for pop cans and plastics you can't recycle at the curb. Of course a separate collection for plastic film aka plastic bags (not recyclable at curb!!!!!). I can't say it enough but please no glass with your other recyclables and NO PLASTIC BAGS AT THE CURB!!!!! At the MRF they have to stop every 2-3hrs to cut out all the plastic bags that have gummed up the system. Better yet don't use plastic bags keep reusable bags in your car for any shopping trip or just say no to bags at the store. Okay I am getting off my high horse now. Feel free to post or email me any questions you might have on recycling. Have a great first day of October everyone.

Random things in our yard

Took these photos from my camera phone and finally downloaded them. The first one is a small tree frog that Melvin was very curious about. The second one is a peanut one of our squirrels buried that started to sprout. Other items I have discovered in our yard half eaten pears (we don't have a pear tree), large mushrooms the size of my fist, an underground pond, a deer skull and Melvin sneaking out. The other picture is of Melvin when we went to stay with  my parents during the 100 degree weather. I put him in the crib while I sewed. He wouldn't stop pacing around and crying. What can I say he is my baby all 16lbs of him.

4 years and going strong

This past weekend, Corey and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary. Each year we try to do something special. We decided to camp at the beach since we love the outdoors and the coast. We left Friday morning and took a leisurely drive down the coast. Stopping for ice cream, beef jerky and salt water taffy at my great grandma's old candy store. We also swung by our families old beach house. Amazing how much the area around it has changed. I was so happy, I got to share it with Corey. We had a few campgrounds picked out and decided on Rock Creek campsite between Yachts and Florence. Our site was right on the creek and not far from the beach. After setting up camp, we went searching for wood for our campfire. We made a good team. I would scout out limbs and Corey would cut them up. Friday night, dinner was traditional camping food, hot dogs, corn and a salad. No beans sorry dad and John. For dessert, of course we roasted marshmallows. Corey says he has perfected the art of roasting them just right.

Saturday morning, I woke to a warm campfire and hot chocolate. We both wanted to do a hike and play in the tide pools during our trip. We went to the Cape Perpetua visitors center and mapped our itinerary for the day. A 3 mile loop down to the tide pool and a 3 mile hike to the top of Cape Perpetua. Sadly, it was a high, low tided and we only saw one starfish. We both enjoyed the waves crashing against the rocks and seeing the spouting horn (a hole in the rocks that water shoots out of). We climbed the rocks for awhile and saw one sea loin in the Cape Cove. I worried it was sick and dieing, but Corey reassured me they do sometimes travel alone. Our hike up to the Cape Perpetua look out was a harder than we both thought it would be. I was over dressed and very sweaty when we reached the top. There were blue skies but it was still foggy looking out to sea and down the coast. During a good day you can see 34 miles out to sea and 70 miles along the coast. We got our one couples photo of the trip and made our journey down. Back at camp, we collected more firewood and took a nap. My only other goal for the trip was having clam chowder. We drove to Florence hoping to get a good cup and watch the OSU game. Neither turned out well. My chowder had few clams and almost nothing else. We didn't realize we were in Duck country, we went to 6 bars and one Casino, but couldn't find anyone playing the Beaver game. In the end, we listened to the game on the car radio. OSU 23 UNLV 21 (for those other OSU fans).

Sunday morning we curled up by the fire and read awhile. By noon our campsite was packed and we headed to Corvallis and my sister's house to see our niece Bailey. Bailey is enjoying her tricycle and her new bike trailer. She wants everyone to take her for a ride. Our last stop was at Corey's parent's for fresh produce and dinner. Finally, making it home around 6pm and welcomed by a hungrily Melvin. Mel over ate and left us a special treat by the front door. I guess it is his way of rebelling against the diet. One downfall of camping is all the clean up when you get home. Better go finish the laundry and dishes.

Happy 4 year anniversary Corey looking forward to many more!

A Special Thanks

Just wanted to recognize Corey's mom, Marti, for always sharing wonderful, fresh, organically grown produce with us. This year alone, we have gotten at least a dozen zucchini and cucumbers from, plus beautiful sunflowers to brighten up our home. Additionally, we will have bags of dehydrated pears and prunes this winter. Something truly special, she doesn't only share her garden bounty with family and friends but the local food bank as well. Not sure how many pounds of fresh produce she has donated to families in need, but it is in the hundreds. Often, food banks only have canned or boxed items. Having direct contact with many families in similar situations through work, I know just how much they need fresh healthy produce. Thank you Marti, for helping families in need eat healthy.