History

Community Environmental Services (CES), a sub unit of the Center for Urban Studies, began as the Recycling Education Projects (REP) in 1989. It was founded by Professors Jerry Blake and Barry Messer who were conducting research on Multifamily Recycling in Portland. They taught a course on the subject which had students in the class conduct a survey of downtown apartment buildings to see how many were recycling. As anticipated, not many were. Students developed a plan to offer recycling education and equipment to these buildings. Jerry Blake went to the City of Portland with this plan and the City agreed to fund the pilot project.

Columbia Villa apartment complex, a multifamily community of over 500 units, was chosen as the initial site. Installing recycling equipment and providing education to the residents proved to be very successful. As a result, the City decided to expand the project to the entire city. All apartment complexes, mobile home parks, and condominiums were given the opportunity to have on-site recycling provided by the City, through PSU.

Each subsequent year, the City contracted with PSU to assist in setting up recycling for multifamily residences. Since over 90% of all Portland multifamily units had access to onsite recycling, this program was successfully concluded in June 1997. Portland was the first U.S. city to target multifamily residences for recycling, which was once thought of as "too hard of a task to accomplish". Portland, with its success, became a model for other cities throughout the U.S. The REP then expanded its role beyond the City of Portland to provide recycling education assistance to other local communities, governmental agencies, and private organizations on a contractual basis.

Building on this success, REP took on other projects relating to solid waste and recycling, as well as other environmental research and service projects. The City of Portland continues to be an important partner to the organization. Additionally, projects have been conducted for Metro, Clackamas County, Washington County, Multnomah County, Yamhill County, the City of Gresham, the City of Troutdale, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Port of Portland among many other jurisdictions. For a complete list of funded projects visit our Projects page.

In 1998 the Recycling Education Projects changed its name to Community Environmental Services (CES) to better reflect our broader mission of addressing urban environmental issues. Since 1989 , nearly 100 students have been employed at CES. . Upon graduation many of these students have found employment in the field of resource management in both the public and private sector.

CES has an organizational structure that includes two full time faculty program managers, Graduate Research Assistants, and several graduate and undergraduate students assisting and coordinating other projects. More about our staff can be found on our Staff page.