A week after a controversial compost conversation at city council, the citywide plan to work food scraps into our trash service sailed through its final vote. The only negative commentary came from Amanda Fritz, who noted that her husband is bad at recycling. I can see the NY Post headline now: “COMPOST CRISIS CREATES DOMESTIC TRASH TALK!!”

I wrote about the details of the plans last week, but just a refresher:

Right around Halloween a brown compost bucket will show up on your porch. You’ll be able to put any and all food in it, then dump said food into the big yard waste bin. This seems like it would be a simple switch, yet it’s slated to cost $1.15 million and require hiring seven temporary staffers. It also changes regular, non-compost trash pickup to every other week, because running all three services (trash, recycling, socialist food scrap relocation program) every week would add up to $8 to our monthly bills. The 20 percent of people who are the biggest trash tossers will see their rates increase anyway under the new plan, even with the service switch.

Because of my Hall Monitor column this week, some people got the impression that I’m anti-compost. Never! Just skeptical about the pricetag for educating people about they can compost when the question elicits a single word answer.

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

11 replies on “New Compost Plan Raises No Stink at Council”

  1. Maybe right *after* Halloween would be better. Kids finding buckets of rotten fruit on our porches might assume those are the “treats” and really do a “trick” or two on our homes.

  2. Hey, why not leave our shit and puke in there too? Wouldn’t that solve the sewer problems? This is a big win for dogs, coyotes, rats, raccoon, flies, crows, etc.

  5. Since I currently put my compost in a bowl and then carry it out to my backyard composter, can I start putting compost in my yard bin before Halloween? I don’t really need their brown container to transport compost, and I’d love to get rid of meat scraps.

    And, uh, yeah, this is probably not the right place to ask. I’ll go try and find a City of Portland resource…

  7. So, how about the 1-3 people households who don’t really produce that much food scrap in week or yard debris (I’m on a corner lot with lots of hard-scaping, so I just put out my first green bin of the year last week!). I can’t let the food stuff sit in the bin for that long, but it seems like a waste of resources for weekly collection of bins with not much stuff in it).

    Oh, I guess I’m on the same route as everyone else, so it won’t be a resource waster. I’m just bitching because it creates a slight inconvenience to me and, dammit, I have to bitch about something – I’m white, male and privileged.

  8. If you compost your veggie scraps in your yard already, you can usually fit you meat/egg/dairy scraps into some containers in your fridge and freeze them until time to take out the yard debris bin.

    We do this for regular trash because we only take the can out maybe once a month as is. We use large yogurt tubs and just keep reusing them.

    I wouldn’t leave meat/dairy scraps in the yard debris bin unless it is pick up day the next day due to animals. Veggie I would if I didn’t compost those at home.

  9. In fact, I think I’ll leave the bucket on my front porch, filled with rotting meat. Better than a “No Solicitors” sign!

  11. “This is a big win for dogs, coyotes, rats, raccoon, flies, crows, etc.”

    @Demondog. You put scraps in your trash can right? Does it get knocked over frequently? If so; where the fuck do you live dude?

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