Metro Central is kind of like a sorting line for discarded items. Trash, recyclables and compost are filtered, picked through and sent to the destination most appropriate.

Sometimes, that's the landfill at Columbia Ridge, about 150 miles east of Portland. But a good deal of the stuff brought to Metro Central gets a second life instead of being buried in the ground forever.

Dale Rickert is the president of Decoprop, a property cleanup company that often brings truckloads to Metro Central.

“My attitude on life is, if in doubt, get rid of it,” Rickert said, as a toilet crashed to the ground nearby. “Otherwise, you end up with a cluttered mess of a house.”

Rickert is one of the hundreds of commercial haulers who use Metro Central every week. Their trucks are weighed, checked for cover – uncovered loads pay more – and then sent to a huge, open bay in the metal-clad building. That's where haulers start unloading their discards.