History

ResourceFULL Use, based in Portland, Oregon was started in 2007 as a collaborative project between the Columbia Corridor Association, an industrial trade association in the eastern part of Portland and Zero Waste Alliance to provide the organizations within the Columbia Corridor Industrial Area with a mechanism to assess their resource needs and by-product streams and to exchange materials and resources -- e.g., use the waste of one organization as an input for another at a local level. ResoueceFULL Use was started because of interest by the members of the Columbia Corridor Association in finding reuse options rather than landfilling by-products.

Since 2007, ResourceFULL Use has expanded beyond the Colombia Corridor to include the greater Portland, Oregon industrial areas, with additional participation from Salem and Eugene, Oregon, and Clark County, Washington. It has continued to focus on facilitating material exchanges primarily through quarterly workshops that incorporate speakers with successful case studies and interactive strategies such as "speed dating", a tactic that allows 20-25 participants to have short conversations about materials "haves and needs" and to develop trading ideas. During the workshops, a list of exchange opportunities is developed which is distributed monthly. ResourceFULL Use has built a mailing list of more than 500 primarily industrial contacts and has a critical mass of returning workshop participants. News of the exchange is spreading, and there are exchange projects in various stages of implementation.