Where Does Our Recycling Go?

Commercial Recycling BinWhen the commingle recycling leaves Ashland and Talent it travels 300 miles north to SP Recycling in Clackamas, Oregon for processing.

The material is mechanically or manually separated into the following commodities:

  • OCC (Old Corrugated Cardboard): Sold mostly to domestic box-board mills in Oregon & Washington
  • ONP (Old Newsprint, Mixed Paper, Junk Mail, etc.): Sold to SP's newsprint mill in Newberg, Oregon
  • HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) Natural & Colored: Exported to China
  • PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate): Exported to China
  • Rigid Plastics (yogurt, cottage cheese tubs): Exported to China
  • Aluminum: Sold to Anheuser Busch for re-manufacture or cans
  • Steel Cans: Sold to Cascade Rolling Mills in McMinnville
  • Residual: About 3-5% residual = trash. SP recycles 95-97% of all the incoming material.
  • Glass: collected separately in blue bins and transported to the Ashland Transfer Station, where it is ground up as aggregate and re-used on site. This eliminates the need to transport the material and mine additional aggregate.