Jan 1 Update: Governor Inslee has delayed the implementation of the plastic bag ban citing supply chain issues affecting retailers' ability to procure the alternative...
Thanks to your support over the last year, we have placed a $57,000 down payment on a new glass crushing system from Andela Products Company,...
Regular Exchange visitors know by now that since COVID hit The Exchange has moved to an alternating schedule of intake and sales days. The store...
The Exchange has always received A LOT of clothes. A lot of bedding. Towels. Bags and shoes. Textiles. Way more than we could ever sell...
Updated 8/11/20: Big thanks to the community for your support of The Exchange and our Covid safety protocol. We know its been hard to schedule...
In the interest of your health, and the health of our employees, be advised that The Exchange store will be closed if the Air Quality...
We always get the occasional really special item at The Exchange. We also often get calls to assist when a family is leaving the island,...
Ever since we re-opened the The Exchange in 2017, we have been experimenting with online sales. We started out with a small online store on...
Thanks to Orcas art teacher Brook Meinhardt and her “Art Kit” project for kids stuck at home (and parents running out of ideas) The Exchange...
Orcas Recycling Services (ORS)/The Exchange has elected Jim "Duff" Duffield as its new president of the board of directors. Duff replaces Tim Blanchard, who has...
Unfortunately due to Corona Virus concerns, ORS must postpone our many plans for celebrating Earth Day this April. That includes planning meetings, Trasion Fashion workshops,...
The political and ecological challenges we face today can be overwhelming. The problems are vast, spanning the globe. We all know that we need to...
Grab a sweatshirt with the new logo! Drop by The Exchange and purchase a sweatshirt with the new logo designed by contest winner, Ginna Magee!...
Help ORS build an up-graded recycling facility on Orcas. The recycling system in America is currently broken. And while we can’t fix the Country, we...
It was another successful Great Islands Clean Up! On September 28th (National Public Lands Day), all islands gathered from 10am - 2pm and cleaned up...
For a couple of years now we have been accepting clean green yard-waste material at a significant discount. We just did our second major grind, and now we...
The Orcas Food Co-op, the Funhouse and The Exchange are teaming up to start an exciting plastic recycling project. A generous local donor purchased the...
Join us for the TRASHION FASHION SHOW during the EARTH DAY FESTIVAL Sunday, April 21 at The Orcas Center | 5:30p This is where...
The annual County-wide hazardous waste collection event is scheduled for Sunday, June 23rd. The event is free to all Orcas households. Businesses must register in...
For months we have been discussing how to launch an online store that would first take into consideration our local community. And now we have...
ORS is now a recycling center for latex paint! Gather up your old, leftover, or unwanted latex paint (liquid form) and drop it off for...
We love doing things that support reuse in the community so we were happy to host a Solstice Parade Costume Workshop here at The Exchange....
The Exchange was hopping on Memorial Day weekend as vendors and visitors gathered for this year's Exchange at The Grange SWAP Meet. Thanks to generous...
Please pay careful attention to signs and direction arrows when entering and leaving ORS/The Exchange. Our traffic pattern is mandated by San Juan County, and helps...
Reservations for drop-off are only required for large loads. Thanks to everyone’s help (and a little bit of technology) we’ve made it through the “Tsunami”....
Orcas Recycling Services (ORS) is pleased to introduce a stellar management team for the new Exchange reuse center. Jeff Ludwig has accepted the position of...
For a couple of years now we have been accepting clean green yard-waste material at a significant discount. We just did our second major grind, and now we...
Thanks to the incredible generosity of the Orcas community, Orcas Recycling Services (ORS) has met its fundraising goals for re-opening The Exchange reuse facility. Fundraising...
Limited edition "I Helped Rebuild The Exchange" t-shirts are available at the Orcas Island Transfer Station during normal business hours (Thursday through Monday, 10am to 4pm)....
On April 20th, The Exchange was the beneficiary of the Orcas Food Co-op's 3% Thursdays Community Shopping Days. We are please to announce that $206...
On Sunday, February 26, Orcas Recycling Services (ORS) held a community Swap Meet at the Orcas Island Odd Fellows Hall. The “Phoenix Rising” Swap Meet was...
On Saturday, October 29th, the first-ever fall Great Islands Clean-Up was held. 33 amazing volunteers on Orcas Island braved the rain and wind to collect 620+...
What an awesome Swap Meet on Sunday, September 11th! It was HUGE! There were over 40 vendors and hundreds of visitors. Thanks to the Orcas Island...
In mid-July, Orcas Recycling Services (ORS) representatives travelled to Manzanita, on the Oregon coast, to visit CARTM (Community Action Recycling Team of Manzanita), a pioneering...
On June 2nd, ORS was awarded a grant of $7,838 to outfit the “Exchange Annex” a multi-purpose workshop, meeting room and classroom in the soon-to-be-rebuilt...
Did you know the Orcas Food Co-op offers fresh, local organic milk in reusable containers? Every Tuesday organic milk from grass-fed cows is delivered directly to...
Since January 2015 The Exchange has been accepting all fluorescent tubes and CFLs (the curly bulbs) for proper recycling at no charge! This is really great, because...
Aluminum cans are free! Bring 'em in separately, and there's no charge. You will help us start testing a proto-type source-separated recycling program, and any...
Recycling electronics at ORS is FREE! In 2014 ORS became a member of the state E-cycle program and can accept TVs, CPUs, laptops and computer monitors...
The development of a Facility Master Plan for the Orcas Island Transfer Station was part of the contract when Orcas Recycling Services took over the...
Our docents have done a super job this year working at the “Z-wall” to help customers understand how to correctly separate cardboard for recycling. Our customers get it...
Not surprising, we’re seeing a lot of non-recyclable wrapping materials being put in the recycling after the holidays. At first glance, it seems like all gift...
Thanks to everyone who participated in the 5th annual fall Great Islands Clean-up! For the first time the event spanned a full week, and was...
The Exchange continues to have some limitations on accepting clothing donations and we understand this, in turn, effects our customers’ ability to buy preowned clothing...
Transitions in life can be difficult. Whether it’s a move, a death in the family, or a need to downsize, there are times when you...
Thanks to everyone who participated in this year's Fall 2020 Great Islands Clean Up! We know it was a little different but we appreciate your...
“It is ORS policy that all decisions involving any aspect of the employment relationship will be made without regard to race, color, sex, creed, religion,...
Sew4ZeroWaste is a sewing and recycling craft workshop run by Asifa Pasin, a Board Member at ORS/The Exchange. The group has recently pivoted their focus...
The Great Islands Clean-Up (“GICU”) has been a County-wide celebration for the last seven years. Participants band together and scour the islands to pick up...
There is a difference between soil creation and a moldering heap. Composting is a process that works to speed up the natural decay of organic...
Greetings Composters! April's sunny skies have a lot of us out in the gardens...and hopefully working on composting. In this month’s column we are sharing...
A little hardship grew to big changes in Cuba in 1991. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the people of Cuba lost 80% of...
The Spring Great Islands Clean Up has been cancelled, but you can still do your part. In honor of Earth Day’s 50th Anniversary this April,...
If you have OISD kids at home between the ages of 5 and 18, Art for Orcas Kids (AOK) is offering free weekly age appropriate...
Orcas Island Recycling Services/The Exchange was recently recognized by Zero Waste Washington with a number of other zero waste movements across Washington State. Author Mariel...
The first meeting of the Community Compost Task Force was well attended with 15 people. Our next meeting is set for Monday, March 16th, 6-7:30...
Prehistoric farmers discovered that manure from their domesticated animals - mixed with straw and other brush and crop residues - would gradually change into a...
Greetings All! This column is in support of ORS’s new endeavor into “Community Scaled” composting. To kick it off, three composting workshops were held around...
ORS was recently approached by Lotioncrafter, one of our awesome local companies, about what to do with the excess 55 gallon steel drums they have...
The Great Islands Clean-Up Saturday, April 20 | Great Island Clean-up at the Village Green in Eastsound from 10a-2p Bags, grabbers, safety vests and latex...
On November 3rd more than 30 committed folks joined ORS/The Exchange in a community forum to visualize the future of the solid waste management here on...
Watch the story of how a rag-tag island swap meet turned into a model non-profit, zero-waste reuse and recycling facility.
When Ruth, Cheryl and Barb bought the Mount Baker Farm property on Orcas Island, they were determined to offer a unique experience for islanders and...
This year's "Trashion Fashion" show was so much fun! The creativity from all you local artists and designers was inspiring. Thanks to all who participated...
When Orcas Recycling Services took control of the new Exchange building, it was just a shell: a big metal building on a concrete slab. There...
One day in the fall, before the new Exchange opened, an incredible item showed up at the dump: a 1963 Rowe Ami JAL 200 jukebox—full...
Nine states, including California and Oregon, now have paint recycling programs in place. Washington needs to be next. Paintcare, a non-profit paint recycling program, was...
Orcas Recycling Services (ORS) is interested in how local area businesses handle waste management. We have started an ongoing series where we interview establishments on...
Each year Recycle Camp at Burning Man recycles 4 forty yard containers of crushed aluminum cans. All of the proceeds go to the local school...
The annual Household Hazardous Waste Day was June 25, 2016 at the Orcas Transfer Station. Many community members gathered their hazardous materials and brought a...
It can be challenging to have minimal environmental impact and create a great product from scratch on an island, but the folks at Island Hoppin’...
Orcas Island is once again a litter-free zone! Thanks so much to all 102 volunteers who came out Saturday, April 23rd, the day after Earth...
Big thanks to Laura Tidwell, Phil Carter and the entire 7th and 8th grade classes at Orcas Middle School for coming out to the ORS/Exchange...
When waste is sent to landfill, air cannot get to the organic waste. As the waste breaks down, it creates methane, a harmful greenhouse gas...
Matching gifts provide you with an easy way to potentially double, if not triple, your original donation! Did you know many companies offer a matching...
Next time you find yourself or someone you love in need of mobility assistance equipment, you can call upon the kind folks at the Orcas...
Recently the board of directors of Orcas Recycling Services/The Exchange spent the weekend with board members of CARTM, their counterparts from Manzanita, Oregon. CARTM is...
The annual Great Islands Clean-Up was a great success! Orcas Islanders picked up more than one ton of litter in just a few hours and...
...and it doesn't look very good. Take a look at this video featuring Laura Tidwell's 8th grade science class as they tear open random bags...
...and that's PER PERSON folks...check out this terrific video about what's really happening with garbage. This covers the whole system, but also is dead-on when...
We are inspired by CARTM, the reuse and transfer station in our favorite Oregon coastal town, Manzanita. They are doing what we intend to do on...
Few materials designed by humans are as lame as Styrofoam. They use gallons of fossil fuel to make, are not recyclable, and don't breakdown. AND there...
Hmmm... We have lots of beach and wave action and glass is the heaviest recyclable we need to haul off island at greatest cost... Sea...
This is an easy one to keep--and it does not cost you anything. If you use Amazon, whether occasionally or a lot (we're not judging!),...
Drop off your dried-out Christmas tree at the transfer station for no charge. We'll add it to our green waste compost pile. Just make sure it...
We were asked recently where the electronics recycling for Orcas goes, so we decided to go check it out. Turns out it goes to a...
It's that time of year again when you order stuff online (yes, most of us do it) and we get inundated with retailer packaging materials...
When you pull up to the recycling area at ORS you may already know that the dedicated cardboard container is the one on the far...
Last month we focused on how plastic bags, sheets, packing pillows, and other items can mess up the sophisticated machinery where our loads of co-mingled...
For more than a year ORS has been encouraging folks to put all plastic film (plastic bags, plastic wraps, bubble wraps, air pillows, etc) in...
This summer, you may meet one of our Recycling Docents at the Orcas Transfer Station when you drop off your recycling. Docents are there to...
Our docents are back on duty at the Z-wall where you drop off your recyclable materials. We started this program in 2019 to explain our...
July Recycling Tip: Take your recycling efforts up a notch and separate your aluminum cans! For years, we've been collecting mixed recycling, including aluminum cans...
The next Household Hazardous Waste Round-up will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, September 26th. Items that do not have a readable...
Last summer ORS began a recycling docent program that put volunteer recycling experts out on the "Z-Wall" at the Orcas Transfer Station. It was a...
If you're looking for ways to keep education flowing through your household during the stay-at-home orders, check out this video and discussion guide from Alex...
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is causing shortages of personal-protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers and hospice caregivers on Orcas Island. Some island residents have...
A photo taken earlier this month at the recycling wall area raises this question: A. Is it mixed, co-mingled recycling dumped on top of separated...
The NPR recently published a helpful infographic on the in’s and out’s of plastic recycling. If you were not already aware, plastic recycling can be...
Board Member, Asifa Pasin has ran multiple successful Beeswax Wrap classes. This Workshop focuses on making your own reusable items from Beeswax! Replace all those...
Orcas Recycling Services has taken a major step in how we recycle and has been running a pilot program for separating cardboard from other recyclables....
Beginning in May, Orcas Recycling Services/The Exchange will introduce a new recycling program, focusing on cardboard. One of the large 40-yard containers at the “Z-wall”...
Late last year when the nation-wide recycling crisis consumed the news, we decided to push forward on our Recycle 2.0 program, hoping it would advance...
On March 7th the Seaview Theater in Eastsound was packed for a screening of the beautifully-made but disturbing film “A Plastic Ocean”. Hosted by the Orcas...
Recycle 2.0 was launched with the purpose of continuing education on the current worldwide recycling challenges. Plastics are a big part of that issue. As...
We've been discussing plastics a lot lately. And for good reason. But have you ever been confused by those numbers listed on plastics? 1, 2,...
What’s wrong with this picture? Look at all of those valuable aluminum cans in the garbage! With a little forethought, the person who threw these...
Here’s what you should know if you enter a restaurant in the San Juan Islands and see signage for, “The Last Straw”: “The Last Straw”...
The Exchange accepts all clothing, bedding, and textiles in clean and useable condition. The accepted clothing and textiles are first made available to the Orcas...
The recycling industry is in turmoil. China, the world’s largest market for recyclable materials, has announced it will dramatically reduce the amount of mixed paper...
More than 12 million pounds of litter comes from vehicles each year in Washington State. Litter falling from vehicles is responsible for more than 400...
On June 24th, more than 150 cars and trucks loaded with household toxic material showed up at the Orcas Transfer Station, where it was safely...
Periodically we like to focus on a local business and how they handle their waste stream. One of the best on Orcas is The Kitchen,...
Our mission at Orcas Recycling Services / The Exchange is to build a zero waste community through service, education and stewardship of Orcas Island’s waste...
Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee per day or equivalent to 146 billion cups of coffee per year, making the United States the leading...
In October 2016 the San Juan County Council unanimously approved an ordinance banning the use of single-use plastic shopping bags. A significant source of litter, plastic bags...
Although textiles aren’t recyclable in our co-mingled recycling at ORS, they should not be thrown in the trash. A staggering 95% of textiles like clothes,...
"AmazonSmile" is a simple and automatic way for you to support your favorite 501(c)3 charitable organization every time you shop on Amazon.com, at no cost...
ORS accepts a number of items at no charge to the community. Programs like this help to keep toxic materials like lead, mercury, heavy metals, and...
We've been accepting it for years, but unfortunately the days of recycling shredded office paper appear to be over. Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) around the Country...
While most plastic lids and caps are technically recyclable, their small size is a problem for sorting facilities. Like loose plastic bags, shredded paper and...
You’ve seen ‘em, you use ‘em, everyone does. These are the rectangular cartons that hold soups and soup stock. They are also commonly used for...
Bubble wrap, air pillow, inflatable packaging, bubble roll, bubble tubing… this product goes by many names, but the bottom line is the same: none of...
Orcas Recycling Services/The Exchange FAQ June 2019 What is The Exchange? In 1981, a group of community activists created Orcas Island’s legendary reuse...
Non-recyclable items frequently end up in the recycling bin, causing a slew of problems. In this regular feature, we will focus each time on something that...
Most of us believe that recycling is our civic and environmental duty. And certainly, as the system is designed now, it is. But if you dig...
Recycling plastic is confusing. What is and is not acceptable can change from month to month and can change dramatically depending on where the plastics...
No other container can match the energy savings and value that aluminum brings to recycling. Not only is the packaging incredibly sustainable, but it also...
We have talked in the past about the problem with glass in the recycling stream. The problem is no one wants it. It is a commodity with...
Attention Orcas Recyclers: No More OPAQUE Plastic Bags! Please bring recyclables loose, in clear bags, or in recyclable containers like a cardboard box, or brown...
ORS/The Exchange is excited to be accepting batteries of all kinds for proper disposal. Vehicle batteries are free, all others are $2.00 per pound. Here...
It is no simple task to nail down the fine details of what is and what is not recyclable. Recycling is driven by an aftermarket...
It’s in the south east corner of Washington, near the town of Roosevelt. It's about 7,000 feet from the Columbia River. Across the river in...
Phone: 360-376-4089
Mailing: PO Box 91, Eastsound WA 98245
Physical: 3398 Orcas Road, Eastsound WA 98245
Email: info@exchangeorcas.org
Hours: Thursday - Monday 10am - 4pm
Tax ID: 30-0785104
Copyright © 2021 · All Rights Reserved · Orcas Island Exchange
Drop-off days: Friday & Sunday (closed to shoppers) - RESERVATION REQUIRED
Shopping days: Thursday, Saturday, & Monday - Facial coverings required; Foot traffic may be limited
The Transfer Station is open normal hours: Thursday-Monday 10am-4pm