Commissioners honor year's best Trashbusters.

Byline: COUNTY BEAT By Randi Bjornstad The Register-Guard

The super recyclers given Lane County's annual Trashbuster awards were honored this week for activities ranging from raising worms - OK, it's part of a school composting effort - to refilling ink cartridges to stockpiling block Styrofoam to keep it out of the landfill.

Dozens of recycling enthusiasts thronged to the county commissioners' meeting Wednesday to applaud this year's recycling efforts in five categories:

Individual - Longtime recycler Zachary Zakon works with event organizers to achieve higher levels of recycling, but his real claim to fame comes from his volunteer efforts at Sacred Heart Medical Center, where he "has diverted numerous trucks of block foam to Portland to be densified and then shipped to California to be recycled," according to Pete Chism of the county's waste management division.

Zakon also educates staff members at Sacred Heart about recycling and has spearheaded collection of aluminum tabs from soft drink cans to support dialysis patients, gathers and recycles block foam and packaging peanuts and collects plastic bags and shrink wrap for reprocessing.

Schools - Students at Springfield's Agnes Stewart Middle School sort and recycle beverage containers, paper bags and plastic after each lunch hour. They gather nonmeat food to compost in the school's worm bins - and then sell the finished compost to raise money for school programs.

The children also collect newsprint, white paper and mixed paper throughout the school for recycling. The program has been in place for seven years.

Business - Eugene-based Rapid Refill offers an option for private and business users to reuse inkjet and laser toner cartridges for printers, copiers and fax machines. The firm, which has begun selling franchises around the country, refills 10,000 cartridges per month locally and also recycles cardboard and office paper as well as office and business furnishings such as countertops, carpet and walls.

Industry - Pacific Pallet Inc. refurbishes more than 100,000 wooden pallets each year for reuse and also recycles 2,700 tons of wood annually for chipped wood products. The firm also recycles paper and cardboard.

Government - City of Eugene employee Anne Donahue maintains three compost education sites in Eugene, providing community education on eco-lawns, "grasscycling," creating and using home compost, mulching and worm composting. She also coordinates education booths on the subject at many community events.

Donahue participates in the Oregon Green Schools Association and has certified 11 area schools in the program.

Much less `e-waste'

being dumped in landfill

Continuing the recycling theme, Chism told the commissioners this week that just over 1,000 people have used the waste management division's new program for getting rid of old electronic items - including computers and monitors, cell phones, fax machines, television sets, copiers and VCRs - since it began in July.

"We've collected 143,851 pounds of e-waste, and we've recovered 12,690 pounds of lead that didn't end up in the landfill," Chism said.

People who use the e-recycling program pay a fee to discard their outmoded items, and the county so far has taken in $20,285, about the amount it has paid a commercial recycler to deconstruct the items and distribute them for reuse or recycling, Chism said.

Of households that have used the service, 700 had Eugene addresses, while 165 came from Springfield, 38 from Florence, 18 from Cottage Grove, 15 from Creswell and 10 each from Junction City and out-of-county locations.

Dozens of businesses also have participated in the program.

For information or to make an e-recycling appointment, call 682-3111.

Parks officials want

to hear from park users

The county has begun an update of its plan for parks and open space, and officials want to make sure they provide the kinds of services residents really want.

They've even made it easy to participate, by filling out an online survey. The one-page "Master Plan Survey Form" can be found at www.lanecounty.org/parks.

To request a paper copy of the survey, call 682-6935.

Randi Bjornstad can be reached at 338-2321 or [e-mail].