by ORCAS RECYCLING SERVICES

Orcas Recycling Services, the local nonprofit best known for The Exchange, recently submitted a proposal to the county to operate the Orcas Island solid waste transfer station. We submitted this proposal on behalf of our island community.

The aim of our proposal is to serve and energize the social, economic and environmental well-being of the Orcas community. It is designed to be accountable to you, the citizens, and sustainable over time. We will reduce and re-purpose our solid waste, treating the stream as a resource to utilize, rather than a liability to be shipped at great cost to a landfill in southern Oregon. We propose to transition back to source-separated recycling (rather than commingled), transforming recyclables from an expense into an asset. Waste disposal will be increasingly affordable and convenient as we convert a costly, wasteful system into a cost-effective system that meets county and state requirements and returns significant benefits to our community.

Seamless continuity of service is a priority. The expertise of county staff with 20-plus years’ experience on site will be retained, and half a dozen full and part-time local positions will be created. Local companies such as Orcas Island Freight Lines will be hired in place of off-island companies.

For 30 years, through The Exchange, ORS has served the interests of our island community. Together we will expand on a successful track record of service and affordability, local accountability, and our many other tangible community benefits. The business community and the entire public will be involved and provide the tools necessary for a successful transition to a more productive and effective system for managing our solid waste/transfer station.  Please talk with our board members, and review documents online and at the library, and share your thoughts with all our county council members soon.

This is not about Orcas Recycling Services versus Cimarron. This is about the opportunity for our island community to realize the greatest social, economic and environmental potential and benefit from our solid waste transfer station.

Orcas Recycling Services: Pete Moe, ORS chair, and  Board members Michael Greenberg, Ian Harlow,  Jared Lovejoy,  Jeff Ludwig,  Susan Malins, Errol Speed and Executive Director Mark DeTray.