The Portland area’s guide to green living
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Sustainable Life section
By SHASTA KEARNS MOORE
For Pamplin Media Group
Imagine a single place you
could take just about any-
thing you didn’t want any-
more — trash, recycling,
scrap metal, Styrofoam pea-
nuts, broken appliances or
even that old, heart-shaped
rug from Aunt Tilda — and
somebody could
find a use for it.
For the people
of the north Ore-
gon coast, there is
such a place.
Tucked away
in the coastal
scrubland near Manzanita,
CARTM (pronounced cart-um)
is a large and enviable depot
run by a nonprofit grass-roots
organization that sorts and
processes almost all of the local
waste.
Put into Portland terms, it’s
like having a ReBuilding Cen-
ter, a Goodwill and a Metro
transfer station all mixed to-
gether with a healthy dose of
art and community.
Some see it as a national
model for communities striving
to achieve “zero waste.”
CARTM employee Sunshine
Erdman says she wishes
CARTMs were as ubiquitous as
McDonald’s restaurants.
“I would love it if it could be
like a chain,” Erdman says, as
she walks the line helping peo-
ple sort their recycling.
“Wouldn’t that be great if
CARTMs were everywhere and
everyone knew what it was?”
Former dump
CARTM is a unique entity
borne from an unusual set of
people and circumstances. In
1990, a group of volunteers
started collecting cardboard
and newspapers for recycling.
They called themselves the
Community Action Recycling
Team of Manzanita (hence the
name CARTM).
Seven years lat-
er, when the local
transfer station
site became avail-
able, the volun-
teers won the con-
tract from Tilla-
mook County to operate it and
dramatically expanded their
mission.
Today, the county govern-
ment considers CARTM a huge
asset, not only in waste reduc-
tion and transfer, but in eco-
nomic development, communi-
ty gathering and even tourism.
“It’s anything but a dump,”
says Tillamook County Com-
missioner Mark Labhart, not-
ing the artistic items in
CARTM’s resale store. “It is a
true statement that residents
of Manzanita bring their
friends and relatives to
tour CARTM when they come
to visit. It is a destination like
the beach is a destination.”
While it’s practically un-
heard-of for a nonprofit to ink
and operate a transfer station
franchise agreement, Labhart
credits the CARTM team with
successfully navigating the un-
usual arrangement.
County Commissioner Tim
Josi agrees, adding that he
would recommend the pro-
gram to other government offi-
cials as long as there were
dedicated volunteers willing to
put in the work.
“It’s a wonderful program,”
thursday, september 19, 2013 •
www.portlandtribune.com
Battle
rages
for eco-
minded
buyers
By STEVE LAW
Pamplin Media Group
Portland General Electric
sells more renewable energy
under its voluntary “green
power” options than any util-
ity in the nation. And when it
sends out monthly bills, it
uses paper and envelopes
certified by the Sustainable
Forestry Initiative.
Tigard-based Stash Tea
boasts on its website that it’s
always look-
ing for a
“greener op-
tion.” It elimi-
nated plastic
wraps on its
tea boxes and
notes that all
its packaging
is now 100
percent recy-
clable and cer-
tified by the
Sustainable
Forestry Ini-
tiative.
PGE and
Stash Tea are
among many
local compa-
nies using the Sustainable
Forestry Initiative’s SFI label
to establish their green bona
fides.
But many environmentalists
charge that SFI amounts to
greenwashing, part of a timber
industry marketing campaign
to woo green-minded custom-
ers without significantly chang-
ing forest practices.
“This is a case of the logging
industry pulling the wool over
companies’ and consumers’
eyes,” says Jim Ace, who is
leading a campaign against SFI
for ForestEthics, a nonprofit in
Bellingham, Wash.
ForestEthics and many of the
nation’s biggest environmental
groups support a rival green
certification system for wood
products run by the Forest
Stewardship Council or FSC.
Kathy Abusow, chief execu-
tive of the Washington, D.C.-
based Sustainable Forestry Ini-
tiative, says ForestEthics is the
one guilty of misleading con-
sumers. “They oversell FSC
and they mislead totally on
SFI,” she says.
Abusow disputes that FSC
criteria for sustainable forest
practices are more rigorous
than SFI’s. “I think they have
stronger language on certain
things,” she says, “but they
don’t deliver on what they say.”
Playing copycat
The Sustainable Forestry Ini-
tiative was created in 1994 by
the American Forest and Paper
Association, a timber trade
group, as a more lenient, indus-
try-friendly alternative to the
Forest Stewardship Council
certification introduced the prior
year. The FSC was developed
and nurtured by European tim-
ber companies and nonprofits
like the World Wildlife Fund,
Sierra Club and Greenpeace
to certify that timber was har-
vested in an environmentally
responsible manner.
The SFI became legally inde-
pendent of the timber industry
trade group in 2007, but that
See LABEL / Page 4
PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP: JONATHAN HOUSE
Many paper products sold at an
East Portland OfficeMax have this
label suggesting the goods were
produced in an environmentally
responsible fashion. Critics say the
label amounts to greenwashing.
“This is a
case of the
logging
industry
pulling the
wool over
companies’
and
consumers’
eyes.”
— Jim Ace,
ForestEthics
Depot finds a way
to recycle or reuse
almost anything
The green gem of the North coast
See CARTM / Page 3
PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP PHOTOS: SHASTA KEARNS MOORE
Under light fixtures made from reclaimed mason jars, Joe MacDonald of Vancouver examines discarded
and donated books sold in The Refindery, a new space at CARTM. The Manzanita nonprofit is a model for
communities around the country trying to reduce waste.
A
lex Bigazzi began to wonder, as he rode his
bike each day through Southeast Portland
to Portland State University, just how much
air pollution he was breathing into his
lungs. After all, health was one of the reasons the
PSU doctoral student in transportation engineering
rode his bicycle in the first place. What
if, he wondered, the toxic compounds
he was inhaling were offsetting the
health benefits of his exercise?
Today, Bigazzi has the beginning of
an answer to those questions. Even bet-
ter, he’s learning on which Portland streets he’s likely
to inhale large amounts of toxic chemicals and on
which routes he can breathe easier.
He’s also managed to get a doctoral dissertation out
of the deal.
You might want to stay off Southeast Powell Boule-
vard if you’re a bike rider — Bigazzi’s breakthrough
data shows biking on Powell leaves a rider with two to
three times more volatile organic compounds in their
lungs as a ride on a less-trafficked neighborhood bike-
way route such as Southeast Clinton or Lincoln
streets.
With funding help from the National Science Foun-
dation, Bigazzi rigged up an orange bike
with more than $10,000 worth of moni-
toring equipment and began riding it
around Portland. The equipment can
measure speed, the rider’s heart rate
and breathing, and a second-by-second
display of the amount of ambient air pollution. Bigazzi
also has a video camera mounted on his bike, so that
back in the lab he can compare the pollution readings
with what was going on around him.
For instance, recently he noticed a spike in ambient
Julie “Fig” Yanko’s
artwork at CARTM is
made from reclaimed
wine foils. Because of
its community-
centered approach
and close relationship
with artists, CARTM
can recycle wine foils,
Styrofoam peanuts
and other materials
that other facilities
won’t accept.
n
www.cartm.com
PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP PHOTOS: JAIME VALDEZ
PSU doctoral student Alex Bigazzi (top) isn’t just
commuting when he rides from Mt. Tabor to Portland
State University. He’s measuring the toxic pollutants
in the air around him and even how much of them are
getting into his lungs. And he’s finding some streets
used by bicyclists are much worse than others.
Story by
Peter Korn
n
Bicyclists inhale more toxins while
pedaling busy arterials
See SMOG / Page 2
Car exhaust proves
unseen road hazard
Group pressures
firms to halt use
of industry label
1 2,3,4