Rachel Thompson/News-Register##Volunteer Carol Paddock, left, assists Susan Escure of McMinnville in sorting plastic containers during The Great Plastic Roundup on Saturday at McMinnville Covenant Church.

Rachel Thompson/News-Register##Volunteers and participants sort hard-to-recycle plastics. Volunteers traveled from Salem, Portland, Vancouver and the Oregon Coast to assist with the collection. Event founder Jeri White said she hopes to “teach other communities how to fill the gap” in recycling plastics not accepted in curbside service, and similar efforts have since begun in other communities.

Rachel Thompson/News-Register##Todd Niehus, a commercial front-load driver for Recology, loads bags of hard-to-recycle plastics into a truck. White called the 14th collection event a “record breaker,” with more than 1,500 pounds of plastic gathered by 60 volunteers. The event, sponsored by Zero Waste McMinnville, collected plastics excluded from curbside recycling for $4 per full grocery bag.