COR is all about community. We believe that when Portland works together to lift each other up, that’s when everyone sees the biggest benefit economically, environmentally, and socially.
Recently, we were asked to help the City of Portland with its latest waste & recycling project and adding new trash bins around Portland, including swapping out many old cement waste receptacles with these new vibrant designs adorned by local Portland artists.
Beautiful and functional, Portland’s new waste and recycling cans are easier to clean (especially when it comes to removing graffiti!), have more storage capacity, and are tamper resistant.
An added benefit of Portland’s new trash receptacles is the addition of a side bin for bottles and cans. This keeps these valuable materials out of the trash so they can be recycled, and also provides an opportunity for can collectors to easily access this recycling. As COR knows through our Division of Community Restoration in Portland that cleans up homeless camps and other contaminated sites, those collected bottles and cans are often a critical piece of helping our houseless population. Plus, adding recycling helps Portland move closer to our goal of being a zero waste city.
The City of Portland and the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) deserve a lot of credit for hiring a minority owned waste collection company in Oregon and heavily involving the Portland BIPOC community. The City of Portland worked with the local arts and the culture council to reach out to BIPOC mural artists interested in creating the graphics for the waste & recycling receptacles. Community members were tapped to rate and pick their favorite designs which now appear on Portland waste & recycling cans across the city. Other BIPOC-owned contractors have also stepped up to remove the trash that accumulates around the trash containers in North Portland. Funding for this City of Portland project came from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan.
Portland has a goal to install 1,700 containers and progress towards that goal has been rapid with the help of COR. About 1,300 containers have already been installed and 400 more are expected to go out over the next two years. Initially, the waste receptacle replacement project was focused on a few business districts, but the effort was expanded into East and Southeast Portland in 2021, then North Portland in 2022, and now COR and the City of Portland have their sights set on Northeast Portland. The locations were selected by community members who were sent a survey asking where they felt trash cans were most needed in Portland. The City of Portland also worked closely with businesses to ensure their needs were met.
Will adding new trash cans and swapping out old cement trash cans with new, aesthetically pleasing “cart garbages” solve our waste & recycling challenges in Portland and prevent graffiti from sprouting up? Of course not. But, it’s about progress over perfection
At COR we believe those visible signs of crime, in this case upturned and graffiti-laden trash cans, create an environment that encourages more destruction. By adding beauty to something with an everyday purpose, people often think twice about damaging not just the cans, but the surrounding area. And if someone is drawn to the beauty of a trash can, they may be more likely to use it. That’s something we can certainly get behind!
Learn more about more ways COR is working to improve the City of Portland.