Congratulations to Paul Freeman who has completed 77 hours (and probably much more!) for his ongoing Master Recycler volunteering. Since he originally took the class in 2007, he has helped out at the Art Fair, State Fair, County Fair, Oregon Green Schools Summit and Home Show to name a few. Paul has taught recycling classes to his clients at the Partnerships in Community Living and helped lead waste audits at several local schools. He has led tours of the Earth Walk Trail at the Salem Keizer Recycling and Transfer station. Earlier this year Paul helped a Lego Robotics team at Englewood Elementary School who put together a presentation about recycling as a part of their Lego Robotics club. Paul exemplifies what it means to be a Master Recycler...way to go Paul!!!

Kirk Leonard also completed his Master Recycler payback hours. Here's how he did it.."I'm retired so I have no workplace or school where I could put a project together. Luckily, the Master Recycler coordinators at Marion County provide lots of opportunities to volunteer -- at home shows, state meetings (Green Schools was great!), film showings and local fairs. I enjoy "tabling" at events like these, and except for a couple of hours on an unfinished writing project, I earned the hours volunteering for the MR program at community events."

Karen Hammerquist (Class #28) took the class in 2014 and has completed 35 hours of volunteer payback. While teaching at Cummings Elementary School in Keizer, Karen took the lead on making her school part of the Oregon Green Schools program. She did waste audits, formed a green team, improved the recycling program and taught lessons about how paper is recycled and more. Karen also volunteered at Earth Day, Family Nature Night and at two Home Shows at the State Fairgrounds. Being a teacher, Karen has also been a great fieldtrip leader for classes that have visited the Salem-Keizer Recycling & Transfer Station's nature trail. Congratulations on becoming an official Master Recycler Karen!

Congratulations to Sven Anderson for completing his hours! "I had long sought to minimize the garbage I personally generated and to recycle as much as possible. Among the many things that I learned by going through the Marion County Master Recycler program was that I was doing some ‘wishful recycling’ – putting things into the mixed recycling barrel that are not actually approved for the barrel and in fact, cause problems in the recycling process. Oops! Some of the items are still recyclable, but just not through the mixed recycling barrel – I have found other options to recycle these items.

Prior to going through the Master Recycler program, I had been involve in the Marion County Adopt-A-Road program. As I went through the program, I began to wonder if there was any existing guidance for recycling items collected during an Adopt-A-Road event. I found that there was not any specific direction and so I experimented with how this could be done. Ultimately in working with staff from Marion County, we created a brochure that provides direction on this and is made available to groups that conduct Marion County Adopt-A-Road events."

Jodi Liudahl took the Master Recycler class in 2013 (Class #27) and has completed 37 hours! Jodi has helped staff our informational table and interacted with hundreds of residents at Earth Day, the Jefferson Flower Fest, Riverfest, the County Fair, the State Fair, the Home Show. Jodi also presented a recycling lesson to her co-workers. Way to go Jodi on becoming an official Master Recycler!