MATERIALS RECOVERY FACILITY (MRF):

In 1998, Cloudburst and most other local garbage hauling companies got together to establish Oregon Recycling Systems (ORS). We realized that in order for local haulers to remain competitive with the big national “Wall Street” garbage companies, we would need to process our own recyclables.  The cost of modern sorting equipment is far more than small local companies can afford by themselves.  So we joined forces and built our own MRF.

David McMahon of Cloudburst has served on the ORS board of directors since inception. ORS is a successful operation which today handles a large percentage of the residential recycling collected in the Cities of Portland and Gresham, as well as significant commercial tonnages, and even recyclables from as far away as British Columbia. Even with today’s co-mingled rollcart collection of recyclables, ORS is able to sort and actually recycle over 99% of the material it receives from the Portland program, possibly the highest recovery rate of any of the several MRFs operating in Portland.

Occasionally, David conducts tours of ORS. Let us know if you’re interested.