Success Story:
Non-profit Organization Inspires Community Recycling in Nehalem Bay

Recycling and waste reduction are strong social norms in the Nehalem Bay community on the North Oregon Coast because of the community spirit inspired by Cartm Recycling, a non-profit, community organization that runs the recycling center and also operates the Manzanita Transfer Station ("the dump").
 
Cartm has a free recycling drop off donation center and a resale store that sells everything from coffee cups to plywood. Cartm staff rescue many of the resale items from dump loads and community members donate clean reusable household goods. The store brings in 40 percent of the facility’s operating revenue. The rest comes from fees and selling recyclables. The DEQ solid waste program has awarded several grants to Tillamook County to help Cartm expand and educate the community.
 
"Cartm is a model for how Oregonians can work cooperatively for a healthy, sustainable environment," said DEQ Director Dick Pedersen. “A non-profit transfer station is unique. In most places, a county or garbage hauler runs the transfer station.”
 
Cartm has a nine-member board of directors and 25 to 30 regular volunteers who devote a total of around 200 hours per month. The staff includes an executive director and six other employees.
 
Volunteers, like Anne Osborn-Coopersmith, are the heart of the organization. A board member and volunteer cashier in the resale store, Anne has also been picking up car-loads of “junk mail” from all three of the local post offices every week for ten years.
 
"Local people are proud of this facility," said Cartm Board of Directors Chair Mark Beach. "Cartm belongs to them. It’s a community hub like the post office."
 
People bring their recyclables and sort different grades of cardboard and paper, ferrous and non-ferrous metals and glass bottles by color. They like to talk to their neighbors as they separate the materials into bins. 
 
This kind of recycling requires extra effort and people who are willing to do it. The community supports Cartm’s zero waste goals including separating recycling and diverting as much as possible out of the waste stream.
 
"As much as eighty percent of trash in a typical American landfill could have been recycled” notes Cartm Director Jan Hamilton. “The locals here are proud to bring in their little bags of trash. And when someone new brings in a whole load of trash, we are happy to help them sort out items they can recycle."
 
Hamilton started out four years ago as a Cartm volunteer and became the director in July of 2008.
 
In order to recycle more materials, Cartm volunteers dismantle everything from vacuum cleaners to coffee pots.
 
"Our volunteers are champion microwave dismantlers," said Hamilton. “They separate the glass, plastic, metal, magnets, capacitors, magnetrons, and small motors, all of which are then recycled or re-used.”
 
In effort to be as energy efficient as possible, Cartm also collects used motor and vegetable oil and uses it to heat their building.
 
There is no curbside recycling in the service area, which includes the cities of Manzanita, Nehalem, Wheeler, and Rockaway and surrounding rural areas. The service area has about 5,000 full-time residents and 600 of those live in Manzanita. The area population swells to 8,000 to 10,000 during the summer months, plus another 1,500 campers from Nehalem Bay State Park which is adjacent to Cartm. Two thirds of the area residences are second homes. Part-time locals learn from their neighbors.
 
Cartm worked with the staff at Nehalem Bay State Park to set up the recycling system at the campground, so that when the recycled materials come from the campground, they are already sorted.
 
Residents bring their out of town guests to tour Cartm and they also like to "party at the dump." Every May, since 1999, Cartm hosts the Trash Bash annual fundraiser. The event includes dancing to live music, refreshments, and a rowdy "trash-on" fashion show and an art exhibit featuring creations from recycled materials. Local artists from all over the region creatively reuse everything from corks to metal scrap, to light bulbs to produce costumes, sculptures, mosaics and other delightful works of art.
 
Cartm organizes the trash bash to be as sustainable as possible. About 1,000 people attended the 2009 event and generated only one small bag of trash. They used mason jars for drinks and recycled or composted the dinnerware.  A local pizza restaurant washed all the jars in their commercial dishwasher. Local farmers hauled away food scraps for their compost heaps.
 
Since 2007, Cartm has been upgrading the operations and facility according a well thought out master plan. Now they are poised and ready for the future as they lead their community to zero waste.