Save the Planet: Recycle! …or Not?

About this event

EVENT DESCRIPTION: Few conservation behaviors have captured the public’s interest as much as recycling. But sorting your trash and placing it at the curb isn’t recycling . . . it’s just the start of a long and somewhat surprising journey for your empty milk cartons and back issues of Cat Fancy .

• Where do those materials go once in the bin?

• How do they get sorted out? And where do they go from there?

• What about those rumors that recycling trucks just deliver materials to the landfill . . . or dump them in the ocean?

• How can recycling even deliver environmental benefit, given all of the trucks and machinery involved?

• What’s the deal with plastic, anyway?

You have questions, and we have answers!

After pioneering recycling policy in the late 1980s, Oregon is now implementing the first “extended producer responsibility” law for packaging in the U.S. The Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act, adopted in 2021, was launched July 1, 2025 and is designed to provide residents and businesses a recycling system that can be trusted to deliver the environmental benefits that recycling has long promised. But even a fully modernized recycling system has limited potential to stem the tide of unsustainable levels of production and consumption.

Explore how recycling is simultaneously necessary and insufficient, how recycling needs to be improved, and what else Oregon could be doing to use materials sustainably.

David Allaway and Justin Gast work at the OR Department of Environmental Quality, and between them have over 57 years of experience with recycling systems. -------- COST : $15 DISCOUNT (senior, student, it's your birthday, just can't afford the GA price right now) $25 GENERAL ADMISSION $35 VIP Premium seating (front center rows) $45 SUPPORTER (Premium seating, pint glass (beer not included), and good feelings for supporting the program)

TICKETS : Get tickets!

WHERE ARE MY PEEPS? This is an unhosted meetup event, but we have a Meetup sign if anyone wants to volunteer to mark a row or two!

IN-PERSON ONLY We are no longer able to offer a live stream option for our live events. A recording is usually available after the event on our Patreon (or sometimes also our YouTube channel ) at the speaker's discretion.

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From Science on Tap - Oregon & Washington