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Far West Fibers (FWF) was founded in January, 1980 by Tom Lindbloom,
president of Conifer Douglas Logging in Roseburg, Oregon and Ron Frashour,
former plant manager for Independent Paper Stock. The first facility of FWF
was located in Beaverton. In the first month of operation, FWF sold a
combined 100 tons of Old Corrugated Containers (OCC) to Willamette
Industries, Albany (now Weyerhaeuser), and Old Newsprint (ONP) to Publishers
Paper, Oregon City (now Blue Heron). |
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In February 1982, with financial assistance from Willamette Industries, FWF
purchased E-Z Recycling which was located on Swan Island in Portland,
Oregon. E-Z Recycling was the recycling division of Fred Meyer. |
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| In the spring of 1985, John Drew
joined FWF as an owner/manager at the Beaverton location. John opened a
brokerage division to buy and sell the trim from the box plants and
materials from pulp and paper mills. In 1988 Ron Frashour sold his interest
in the company to John. |
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1991 Recycling Act established curbside recycling in Oregon communities with
a population of over 4,000 as the primary means of recycling household
materials. This changed the emphasis of recycling from commercial and
source separated with drop off depots for households, to households with
source separated material collected at curbside by the local hauler. The
recovery rate increased dramatically as a result of adding curbside
recycling. Commercial materials were still collected, but made Up a smaller
portion of the total recycling stream. The state set recycling rate
goals for
each waste shed in 1984. FWF expanded its relationships with the
franchised haulers in Washington County. FWF provided a market for the
source separated materials collected by the haulers. They also provided a
physical space at the FWF facility for the haulers to store and sort
collected items so that they could be sold at their highest values |
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The facility at Swan
Island became too small for the increased volume of materials and activities
at E-Z Recycling. In 1993 a new facility was located in Northeast Portland
near NE 122nd. This facility was acquired with Willamette
Industries financial assistance, remodeled to meet the needs of FWF, and
occupied by September 1993. With the expansion at E-Z, the brokerage
division moved from Beaverton to Portland. This allowed additional staff to
help increase their business. By the end of 1994 the plants and Sales and
Marketing divisions were functioning as equal partners and contributing to
the success of FWF. |
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In 1994 in partnership
with Willamette Industries, John Drew purchased Spokane Recycling Products (SRP)
and Waste Paper Services. Spokane Recycling became a partner of FWF.
These companies provide employment to 40 people and recycling opportunities
to the eastern portion of Washington and western Idaho. |
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1995 two new relationships emerged. They were with Neighborhood Recycling
and Business Services Hawaii. FWF partnered with Margaret and Shon Pahio
of Business Services Hawaii to finance recycling equipment and a building so
that they could offer recycling opportunities on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Neighborhood Recycling became a part of the FWF family in October 1995, when
one of the oldest recycling facilities in Portland was in danger of closing
their doors. After years at its historical location at Fred Meyer’s
headquarters complex, Neighborhood Recycling was moved to its present
location on SE 28th. It became the FWF SE Portland plant in
December 1997. |
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In 1999 FWF expanded to Northern California with the addition to the Sales
and Marketing Division of our Southwest Brokerage Manager. Also in 1999 the
Beaverton operation relocated to a new facility in Hillsboro to better serve
Washington County haulers. The original Beaverton location remains as a
transload facility for haulers and a drop off recycling depot for Beaverton
area residents. |
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Today there are a total of four FWF facilities in the Portland Metro area.
Fifteen managers own FWF and Spokane Recycling. FWF and SRP facilities
currently process approximately 275,000 tons of recyclables annually. In
addition, FWF and SRP Sales and Marketing and Brokerage departments buy and
sell over 150,000 tons of paper annually. They continue to invest and grow
in the future of recycling. With new modern plants in Portland and
Hillsboro, FWF is able to offer processing and marketing for recyclables to
most of the residents and businesses in the state of Oregon. The facilities
in Oregon employ 80 people.
In 2002 Willamette Industries was purchased by Weyerhaeuser. All
Willamette contracts and obligations were assumed by the new owner. Spokane
Recycling expanded their operations into Idaho in 2002 with their purchase
of a paper processing and recycling plant which is located in Coeur
d’Alene. This plant is called Bluebird Recycling. The facilities
in Washington and Idaho employ 43 people.
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Far West Fibers, Inc.
