Rhone Street Retreat

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Home of the “Spice Girl” chickens, the cozy Rhone Street Retreat AirBnB, the community Rhone Street Recycle Station, several Sidewalk Joy sights, a fun LFL, a geocache, and the Wishing Tree

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https://linktr.ee/RhoneStreetRetreat

♻️ Not all clear plastics are created equal...Take a close look at the first slide. At a glance, it just looks like a bi...
06/03/2026

♻️ Not all clear plastics are created equal...
Take a close look at the first slide. At a glance, it just looks like a bin full of clear 1 plastic containers, right?
Look a little closer. 🕵️‍♂️

Sitting right on top is a 5 plastic lid that almost made its way into the wrong recycling stream.

This is exactly why I spend time sorting through every single bin 1–2 times a week. It’s not that people don’t want to recycle correctly—it’s usually just because these plastics look so similar, and hunting down those itsy-bitsy, teeny-tiny resin codes can definitely be a bit tricky!

But doing the right thing just means finding simple tricks to overcome those little challenges. You can easily make this a breeze by zooming in with your phone camera, setting up pre-sorting bins at home, or using a marker to label items as you go. Plus, we even have a magnifying glass right here at the Recycle Station to help you spot them in a flash!

Like any new skill, properly identifying these plastics just takes a little bit of learning and practice.

Swipe through to see a quick cheat sheet to help you build that muscle memory and tell them apart at a glance:

1️⃣ Check the Resin Code: Look closely for those tiny numbers inside the recycling triangle.
2️⃣ Look at the Clarity: 6 is usually opaque/dull clear, 5 is standard clear, and 1 has that signature “crystal clear” shine.
3️⃣ Listen to it: If you crinkle it and it sounds super loud and brittle, it’s likely a 6!

Did you spot the error on the first slide before swiping?
Let me know in the comments! 👇

Let’s talk about the “Marketing Noise” 📣We all use and consume products in almost every aspect of our lives, and we are ...
05/29/2026

Let’s talk about the “Marketing Noise” 📣

We all use and consume products in almost every aspect of our lives, and we are constantly fed a lot of marketing from companies and over-paid “influencers”. It’s getting harder to tell a genuine recommendation from a pitch, isn’t it?

Full disclosure: I am not being paid to sell these products and I wasb’t asked by the companies to give a review. I just wanted to share an honest review of some favorite products that have survived three+ years of real-world testing in our household.

Since 2020, my family has been making changes for the good of our wallets and the planet—starting right in the bathroom!

🧻 – We switched to their bamboo TP in 2020 and never looked back. It’s soft and durable and we use way less. One box lasts us nearly a year, even with the nanny kiddos and the Airbnb!

🪥 – I switched my plastic electric toothbrush to this bamboo electric toothbrush. I love the bamboo brush heads. They feel great and last so much longer than the gross plastic ones as they are a solid piece of bamboo with nowhere for the slimey build-up to hide like on the plastic heads.

🌸 – A refillable, aluminum-free stick that actually lasts all day—even when I’m out sweating in the garden. I love the scents and that the packaging is all paper-based and the ingredients are aluminum-free. Q

🧴 – Their Stem Cell Face Cream is my absolute favorite. It’s part of their circular economy program—use the cream, return the jar, and they clean and reuse it! This cream has been great for its intended purposes but also to reduce scars and make super dry skin on my hands and arms much more soft and supple.
✨ A not pictured Favorite: I also have to give a shout out to Mama and Hapa’s roll-on fragrance. Like the cream, it’s a refillable circular system and it’s become my daily go-to. They smell amazing too!

If you’re looking to make some positive changes but feel overwhelmed by the ads, the bathroom is a simple, high-impact place to start.

Do you have a favorite sustainable product?
Please share in the comments! 👇

05/25/2026

This is what Memorial Day is truly about. 🇺🇸👇

Over the weekend, scouts from all over the area came together at Willamette National Cemetery for a powerful tradition. Together, we cleaned headstones, placed flags, and said the name of—and thank you to—EVERY single service member and family member buried there.

It was an honor to speak with Senator Ron Wyden who spoke at the ceremony in support of this massive, heartfelt task.

It is the most reverent service project that I have the privilege to do every year, and I’m so grateful to share this tradition with my son’s scout unit.

Did you know this is exactly how this federal holiday came to be?
Originally called “Decoration Day,” it was established after the Civil War so citizens could decorate fallen soldiers’ graves with spring flowers.

If you have the opportunity to visit Willamette National Cemetery, please do. Seeing a flag at every single stone is a sight to behold.
But wherever you are today, take a moment to thank the veterans in your life—those we have lost and those still with us—for their willingness to pay the ultimate sacrifice.

How are you honoring the fallen today? 🕊️

ATTENTION all Rhone Street Recycle Station recyclers… 🛑🔄The station is currently CLOSED! Don’t fret, it’s only temporary...
05/23/2026

ATTENTION all Rhone Street Recycle Station recyclers…
🛑🔄

The station is currently CLOSED! Don’t fret, it’s only temporary. We are using the driveway as a staging area for a brand-new backyard shed (replacing the old one my son took down a few weeks ago). 🛠️🏡

We are aiming to be back up and running before the end of the long holiday weekend—possibly sooner—but please plan for a full weekend closure and hold onto your specialty recyclables for now. I apologize for the unexpected pause and thank you all so much for your flexibility and understanding!

✨ A Quick Holiday Weekend Challenge:
While the station is paused, use this as a perfect opportunity to do a mini “waste audit” at home! Before you stash those items away to bring by later, take a close look at what you’ve collected.
* What kind of waste are you creating the most?
* How much of it is there?
* Are there small, positive changes you can make to reduce that waste at the source before it even needs recycling?

Remember: Reduce > Reuse > Recycle! Stay tuned for the grand reopening announcement, and thank you for being such an awesome, eco-conscious neighborhood!

The plastic hiding in plain sight... 🥖👀If you buy the Don Miguel frozen burritos from Costco, you’ve probably seen the i...
05/20/2026

The plastic hiding in plain sight... 🥖👀
If you buy the Don Miguel frozen burritos from Costco, you’ve probably seen the instructions: “Open one end and microwave in the wrapper.” It looks like paper, it feels like paper, so you don’t think twice, right?
But that’s where the deception happens. 🧵👇
If you tear that wrapper completely open, you’ll notice a shiny inner lining. Because this is a frozen food item, regular paper would get soggy and disintegrate. To prevent that, the packaging is injected with wet-strength chemicals or lined with a hidden layer of plastic.

This is classic corporate greenwashing.
It makes you feel like you’re using safe, eco-friendly packaging, but you’re actually microwaving your food directly inside plastic and chemical liners.

How to fix it:
Don’t be fooled! Take the burrito completely out of the wrapper and cook it on a microwave-safe plate, or pop it in the air fryer for a much better crunch anyway. 🔥

💡 The Golden Rule: If a food packaging looks like paper but goes in the fridge or freezer, it has plastic in it. This means it is NOT safe to microwave, and it is NOT eligible for recycling.

Spread the word and protect your friends and family from hidden microplastics and toxic chemicals in their food ♻️❌

I know those resin code numbers are often frustratingly small and that makes sorting them HARD. 🔍🕵️‍♀️To help, I do prov...
05/18/2026

I know those resin code numbers are often frustratingly small and that makes sorting them HARD. 🔍🕵️‍♀️

To help, I do provide a magnifying glass here at the Rhone Street Recycle Station, but you can also use your phone’s camera and flashlight at home to catch those tricky numbers!

Why does sorting matter so much?
The plastics might feel and look alike or even identical, but they cannot be mixed for recycling in this method. They have to be sorted separately to be accepted by the depots because they are in fact different resins… that’s what those numbers actually signify.

This is classic greenwashing. 💸
Packaging producers make this process incredibly complicated by printing these teeny-tiny, hard to read and find codes, and corporate marketing has falsely led us all to believe that these numbers and this symbol ♻️ mean a plastic item is automatically recyclable when it doesn’t and isn’t.

The behind-the-scenes:
This project is something I donate my time and effort to. The fees collected only cover what the Recycling Depots charge me to drop off your items—my time commuting and hand-sorting is a gift to our community. It would be a huge help if everyone could double-check their items before they drop anything off so that you are making this recycling system a help rather than a hindrance! 🌍💪

A quick tip:
Using a magnifying glass OR taking a pic of the code and zooming in on the image can confirm the resin number. Pre-sorting items into different bags before coming to the station, OR using a sharpie to write the code number clearly on the item, can help you sort much faster when you get to the Recycle Station!

What if I don’t use YOUR recycle station:
While this post is specifically about my Rhone Street Recycle Station, the concept is the same for recycling anywhere… follow the rules for recycling and the recycling process works better!

Wherever you live, reach out to your haulers to find out what is accepted in your curbside recycle bin. If you recycle with specialty third-party recyclers like I do here, be sure to check out their sorting expectations as well.

Recycling works better when we all do our part in the process 🤝✨

05/15/2026

Stop! Don’t bring these to the station! 🛑♻️

Is it Curbside recyclable or recyclable at the Rhone Street Recycle Station? 🟦 vs ♻️

In Portland, our curbside recycling is based on Size and Shape. If you have a plastic bottle, bucket, tub, or jug that is bigger than 2” x 2”, it belongs in your CURBSIDE RECYCLE BIN at home!

Recently, I’ve seen a lot of large containers being dropped off here, like these yogurt and feta containers.
While I appreciate the enthusiasm and effort to recycle, these are actually part of the city’s standard program.

My easy sorting tip:
Measure your finger or hand to find your “2-inch mark.” Once you know what that looks like, you can sort your recycling in seconds without a ruler! 📏🖐️

Let’s keep the Rhone Street Recycle Station bins clear for just the hard-to-recycle specialty items that the city can’t take.

Address

Portland, OR
97086-97299

Website

https://5904serhonest.wixsite.com/recyclestation, https://linktr.ee/RhoneStreetR

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