Spring is a great time to give your home a good once over. You should do it if you are about to list your house for sale, but you should also do it as a matter of keeping up with maintenance and repair. Being a good steward of your home will maintain and even increase it’s value. So it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to it!
As you sort, wash, and organize, there is likely going to be a good deal of stuff to dispose of. Oregon is a mecca for recycling and properly disposing of debris, so I thought today would be a good time to go over some basics.
Curb side recycling is amazing. Here in LO you can sort your weekly pick up into garbage, recycling, and yard debris. We have 4 different curb side containers. For yard debris you can put small stuff like grass clippings and leaves and for larger stuff you can put in branches and limbs that are cut into sections. No, you can’t have a tree popping out of the top of the can. It has to be cut up and fit into the can. For recycling you can put out paper, plastic containers that have necks (think containers with twist on tops) and tin cans and clean aluminum. Glass has to be sorted separately and put into its own container.
You can not recycle at the curb plastic bags or molded plastic like the clam shells that vegetables come in. You also can not recycle glass light bulbs or broken dishes.
Yard debris can also be put at the curb in biodegradable bags for an extra pick up charge.
But what to do with the things that can’t be recycled curbside? Here are some answers.
Far West Recycling is right her in Lake Oswego (341 Foothills Rd). They take metal, glass, styrofoam, and elctronics. I have recycled old TVs and computers here for a small donation.
S & H Logging is also local (20200 Stafford Rd) and they take yard debris on a large scale. I’m talking pull every single scrap out of your yard and take it in the back of a flat-bed truck quantity of yard debris. The great thing at S & H is that they also sell landscape supplies like bark dust and compost. So you can take to them what you want to get rid of and bring home what you need.
Southmetro
is the place to take everything else. Located in Oregon City you can take to them wood waste, garbage, motor oil, paint, appliances, plastics, they pretty much handle it all.
Please, please, please don’t put stuff into landfills that can be recycled. When I travel to other states and see pop cans in the garbage I have a physical reaction to the waste. It is so easy to recycle this stuff. I know not every single citizen of this state is so emphatic, but I do think it is part of our common community. When in Oregon….
Happy house cleaning!
Dianne