ANOTHER WEEK in Portland City Council, another hot discussion over the merits of composting.
If Mayor Sam Adams would refrain for a single week from sponsoring resolutions clearly written on the set of Portlandia, it would be a nice change of pace. But, hey, he’s all about supporting the local film industry, so—here we are. Talking about compost. Very controversial compost!
Here’s the deal: The city wants people to stop putting all their food scraps into the regular trashcan and instead put them into the green yard-waste bin. Tempeh nuggets, New York Times-lauded novelty pie slices, E. coli-laced strawberries, the whole shebang goes in the yard-waste bin.
This seems like it would be a simple change, but somehow it’s slated to cost $1.15 million and require hiring seven temporary staffers.
It also requires changing 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.
How the hell did composting become so expensive? I throw my old food onto a heaping pile in the backyard that I swear will one day turn into a garden when I get around to it. And it’s free!
Well, some of the cost is completely necessary. City Solid Waste and Recycling Program Manager Bruce Walker explains that operating industrial composting facilities have a higher cost than regular landfills, because they have to get more complicated environmental permitting.
That’s ironic—state agencies should incentivize composting by making it cheaper for more sustainable landfills to operate. In the bright future, it should cost more to throw away your Kraft macaroni and cheese boxes than to let the uneaten cheesy bits industrially biodegrade (Does Kraft biodegrade? That’s a question for the bright future to answer).
But I think the amount spent on staffing is questionable. The jobs are short term—three to 10 months—and I can see the city being deluged with questions when the program launches in October. But really? Seven people to say, “Put food in the bin. Yes, all food! That’s not food, nitwit”?
City council hears the compost resolution this Wednesday, August 10, and votes August 17. Until then, I will be fielding questions about what is and is not food at the rate of $20 an hour. Your sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free kale cake? Not food. Okay, whatever, it is. Give me $20.
Ironic that they want to charge for ‘more complicated’ permits.
It decomposes naturally, as opposed to the usual dump crap.
The O reported the cost at 1.5 million, and while your number is $1.15 million. ???
Who gives out these figures?
Boy, how did you get yer boss to sign off on a article that dares to question aspects of this?
Many column inches on reporter’s ignorance of industrial composting. No column inches on how industrial composting actually works, whether other cities have similar programs, or how Portland will benefit from this program.
Two paragraphs maligning the decision to hire seven temporary staffers. No facts or quotations on what these staffers will actually do.
With the cab article this is two columns in two weeks where an opinion without facts, like a boat without a hull, wallows and sinks. All I learn is that Ms. Mirk doesn’t like compost. But she’s closer to the matter, maybe she has a privileged insight. Without more information it’s impossible to tell.
@frankieb – I’m not sure where the O gets the $1.5 million figure, but $1.15 million is the stated “one time cost estimate” of the plan on the proposal submitted to city council. About half of that is for staffing, a quarter covers the higher cost of composting vs. traditional landfill hauling, and a quarter is a safety net for contingencies, according to City Solid Waste and Recycling Program Manager Bruce Walker.
@sexmachinealpha – Don’t get me wrong, composting is great! And because I support the overall idea of the plan and want it to be financially sustainable, I have the responsibility to be skeptical about the specifics of the costs. While a news article would go into more details of how the program works, this opinion column is meant to focus just on the financial angle.
Thanks Sarah!
So, we can just start putting all our unused food into the yard waste bin and they will compost it? But first, will they separate it from the yard waste? If not, why haven’t we always been composting the yard waste? And one more thing, Shouldn’t the future sale of the tons of fertilizer in some way offset the cost of collection?
Your 20 is in the mail.