For more information, please follow this link: https://oregon.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/SOR_External_Career_Site/job/Portland–DEQ–Multnomah-Street/Recycling-Program-Implementation-Lead–Natural-Resource-Specialist-4-_REQ-95865
Salary– $5,233 – $8,043
Job Description:
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality strives to build and sustain an inclusive environment that embraces and values diversity. Employees at all levels of the agency work together to foster fairness, equity, inclusion, and belonging. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, veteran, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, or physical or mental disability. Candidates from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply. We are most interested in finding the best candidate for the job, and that candidate may not meet every one of our listed preferred qualifications. Lived experience may count towards the preferred qualification. If you are excited about this position, we encourage you to apply. If you are unsure as to whether or not you meet the qualifications of this position, please contact us to discuss your application.
Are you passionate about preserving, enhancing, and protecting Oregon’s environment? If so, please consider a career with the State of Oregon at the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). At DEQ, employees have the opportunity to work with a dynamic and supportive team of mission-focused individuals tasked with maintaining, restoring, and enhancing the quality of Oregon’s air, land, and water. Here is a video about DEQ: https://youtu.be/iP3K7JoLe1k
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has a full-time opportunity for a Recycling Program Implementation Lead (Natural Resource Specialist 4) in Portland, Oregon.
Materials play a significant role in our health and the health of the planet. DEQ’s Materials Management Program plans and implements policies and programs to reduce impacts of materials and products throughout their full life cycle, from design and production through distribution, consumption and use, and management at end-of-life.
Product stewardship is an environmental management strategy in which all parties involved in the design, production, sale, and use of a product take responsibility for minimizing environmental and human health impacts. DEQ supports product stewardship as a way to reduce overall environmental impacts throughout the product’s full life cycle; increase reuse and recycling; reduce toxics and waste generation; and internalize and more equitably distribute the costs of products, including managing those products at the end of their useful life.
DEQ is a leader in product stewardship and extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs. Oregon has the oldest deposit and redemption program for beverage containers, which has operated (and been significantly expanded) since 1972. Since then, Oregon has adopted and successfully implemented EPR programs for electronics, paint, and most recently, unwanted medicines.
In 2021, Oregon became one of the first states in the nation to pass legislation requiring producers of packaged products, food serviceware, and printing and writing paper to take responsibility for effective recycling and management of their products. Oregon’s landmark Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act establishes numerous precedents aimed at reducing environmental impacts and improving social outcomes across the life cycle of materials.
Please consider joining an innovative team, and work to advance our agency’s mission to protect and improve Oregon’s environmental quality. The Land Quality Division supports the agency’s mission by managing environmental cleanups, assessing cleanup sites, promoting manufacturing and recycling of non-toxic commercial products, safely managing the disposal of solid and hazardous wastes, overseeing the state’s underground storage tank and heating oil tank programs, ensuring timely response and cleanup of spills of oil and hazardous materials, and regulating safe discharge of ballast water to state waters. Click here to view a map of all of the DEQ offices.
What you will do!
You will conduct complex research and analysis and work with other program employees and recycling system stakeholders to establish and maintain elements of the Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act. You will coordinate an implementation team and oversee multiple interrelated projects such as establishing a uniform statewide recycling collection list; establishing goals related to recycling education and plastics recovery, and measuring progress towards those goals; overseeing recycling education pilots; establishing and maintaining lists of approved best practices for recycling education; reviewing and approving educational resources created by producers; and leading other program research and analysis.
What’s in it for you!
The opportunity to work in a productive and creative environment where no two days are ever the same! We offer a competitive benefits package that offers comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans for the employee and their qualified family members, as well as paid sick leave, vacation leave, personal leave, and 11 paid holidays a year. In addition, we offer membership in the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), and you have the opportunity to potentially receive loan forgiveness under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF). If you are passionate about Oregon’s environment, apply today!