Far West Fibers Revenue and Competitors

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). 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. 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. The 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.