Interview of Lee Michael Barrett by Angie Cirello in Portland, Oregon on November 20th, 2009.
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Barrett, Lee Michael

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Portland State UniversityPDXScholarAll Sustainability History Project Oral Histories Special Collections: Sustainability History Project11-20-2009Interview with Lee Michael Barrett, Eco-Logistics, 2009 (audio)Lee Michael BarrettLet us know how access to this document benefits you.Follow this and additional works at: http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/sustainhistPart of the Sustainability CommonsThis Interview is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories by anauthorized administrator of PDXScholar. For more information, please contact pdxscholar@pdx.edu.Recommended CitationCirello, Angie, "Interview with Lee Michael Barrett, 2009 (audio)" (2009). Sustainability History Project. http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/10758Portland State University Oral History Project Interview Index  INTERVIEWEE: Lee Barrett Interviewer: Angie Cirello Date: 11/20/2009 Location of Interview: Portland, OR 97212 Research Assistant: Zak Hathaway Interview Series:  SUSTAINING NORTHWEST LANDSCAPES & COMMUNITIES Recording Equipment:  DIGITAL RECORDER (WINDOWS MEDIA AUDIO FILE) WITH AN               EXTERNAL, OMNIDIRECTIONAL MICROPHONE  Time          Notes 0:35 Born and Raised? Rochester, NY 0:52 What brought you to Portland? Land of opportunity 1:50 NYU Degree in Economics 2:27 How did you get your start at PRT? Jerry Powell Rick Anthony 1978-1982 4:22 What did you do at PRT? Management Making it more professional Moving away from the hippy image 5:55 What role did PRT play in Portland? Jerry Powell Established recycling centers Small amount of curbside Mostly left to cloudburst and sun Mainly focused on depots Drop off sites around town PRT at height 1,000 tons/month 11:00 Economic aspects of PRT? Made money on high end paper CETA program 14:07 What got you interested in environmental aspects? Moving out to Portland Working for DEQ By accident 16:30 Keith Peters and Ecologistics? KP.com Carbon neutral journal Reduce footprint Green events Companies want to be green Started working with Keith after retirement 20:15 Why am I working while retired? Has friends in the field Give back to the community 22:00 Rebuilding Center run villages Younger generations moving past me 23:45 What has changed in recycling? Bottle bill Curbside collection 26:00 How does Portland stand out in recycling? 1992 yellow bins Signature container Portland not the leader San Francisco and Seattle better Had to compare Portland to them, though Portland has multiple trash companies San Francisco example Bottle bill OSSI - ORRA 31:33 How can the region/Portland be better with recycling? Not much Portland can do Newsprint – negative sort Causes contamination Has to be thrown away Recycling aseptic containers Hard to tell the public no People try to do too good of a job 39:34 Challenge to recycle? Madison Ave. Products pushed on us Metro’s Advertising Campaign Buy less Recycling not the ultimate answer 42:37 Portland Recycling mistakes/issues? Haulers 1996 flood City took money from rollcarts Better job recovering materials if fewer garbage companies Not most efficient system 50:30 What is the future of waste management? Focus on consumption Food Waste 51:00 Biggest failure of food waste program Started to work on food waste 1997-1998 Underfinanced Composting had environmental problems People didn’t want to live around it 150 miles to closest composting site Norpal Composting hard to control (due to weather)  Time             Notes 1:00:00 What have been your biggest successes? Advised consent (1994-1995) requiring businesses to recycle Businesses (franchised commercial collection) Jim Wesset – Burger King Cost assessment of recycling for businesses 1:10:00 How do you define sustainability? Individuals thinking about the consequences of their actions as it relates to future generations Advertising creates entitlement  

Interview with Lee Michael Barrett, Eco-Logistics, 2009 (audio)

https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&amp;context=sustainhist

Interview with Lee Michael Barrett, Eco-Logistics, 2009 (audio)

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