Why Recycle? Waste Hierarchy SOS Offers Recycling Education REDUCE takes priority! Avoiding unnecessary consumption of goods and services will not only save you money, but it is the most effective way in conserving our natural resources and saving space in our landfills. A simple way to make a big impact and save money is using a reusable water bottle instead of one-time use plastic water bottles. REUSE gives a product a second-life! Reusing common items can be done by repairing, sharing, and upcycling. RECYCLING can turn a used material into a raw material to create a new product. The Waste Hierarchy ranks waste management options from the most environmentally friendly to the least. Eagle Point Division P.O. Box 489 42 Ball Rd. Eagle Point, OR 97524 541-826-5691 Grants Pass Division P.O. Box 6000 1381 Redwood Ave. Grants Pass, OR 97527 541-479-5335 www.sosanitation.com S.O.S. Recycling Efforts-2020 Q4-GPEP2021 As the recycling markets continue to recover from the challenges presented in 2018, Southern Oregon Sanitation has remained committed to recycling materials still in demand in local markets. As a result, we were able to begin accepting more plastic bottles and jugs in April of 2020! We were able to recover and recycle 7,505,576 pounds of material from the waste streams in our Josephine and Jackson County service areas. This included corrugated cardboard, glass, newspapers, plastic bottles and jugs, tin and aluminum cans, e-waste and used motor oil collected from our curbside recycling program and through our recycle depot drop off locations in our Jackson and Josephine County service areas. • Schools • Businesses • Community Organizations Learn ways to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle in our community. This education is available at no cost. Contact our Recycling & Educational Outreach Associate. Email: [email protected] Helping Our Community Reduce • Reuse • Recycle GP-EP MUNI’s 01, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 32 Make Your Recycling Count A Note About Contamination (answers below) Recycling’s purpose is to divert the use of virgin materials from being used and reduce the overall environmental impact. Together, we can make an impact in reducing our communities carbon footprint! Our curbside Recycling Program is easy and is included with your trash service at no additional charge. (See Curbside Recycling Mix). To ensure a viable recycling product is delivered to recycling markets, it is necessary to eliminate all contamination in recycling. Contamination of recycling can be caused by items such as; food scraps, lids, plastic bags, coffee pods, straws, to-go containers, Styrofoam, trash or any other “non-program” material. Unfortunately, “wishful” recycling (the hope that a material is recyclable somewhere) can have serious consequences for your haulers, the recycling programs offered, and the overall recycling markets such as, an entire truck load of recycling getting rejected and sent to the landfill. Some contamination items include: Yogurt tubs • clamshell containers • food scraps • greasy pizza boxes • glass • greasy french fry boxes • waxy papers. Can you identify the contamination items in this cart? Make Your Effort Count! Recycling