Metro contractors have shipped more than 1,800 tons of organic material deep into Washington for composting because of Portland's new residential food waste collection program.
That's about 4 percent of the 40,735 tons of residential organics that have been collected since Portland started allowing residential trash customers to mix kitchen scraps with the yard debris they've already been sending for composting.
Portland has the only residential food waste collection program of the 25 cities in Metro. The Oct. 31, 2011, start of Portland's program threw a wrench in the Metro-managed regional waste collection system.
Whereas the region is dotted with sites that could manage loads from trucks picking up curbside yard debris, only the Metro Central and Metro South transfer stations are permitted to handle yard debris mixed with food waste. And only certain sites are permitted to take the material from Metro Central and Metro South once it contains food.
"Neither the yard debris nor the food are the problem," said Metro chief operating officer Martha Bennett. "It's what happens when you put them together."
The only nearby facility licensed to collect the mixture is Nature's Needs in North Plains; state regulators capped the amount of compostable material it could accept after nearby residents began complaining about the facility's smell.
It had been accepting all of the compostables from the Metro Central transfer facility, which gets about 60 percent of the curbside pickup loads from Portland.
All of the compostables from Metro South are sent to a compost facility north of Corvallis.
But that facility is owned by Allied Waste, which also manages Metro South. Metro Central is managed by Recology, which also owns Nature's Needs; Recology won't send waste to its competitor's compost lot.
That means the waste instead is trucked as far as 265 miles away, to Royal Organic Products in Royal City, Wash., on the Channeled Scablands northeast of Yakima. Trucks from Metro Central are also taking compostables to Lenz Enterprises in Stanwood, Wash., north of Everett and 60 miles from the Canadian border.
Staff from Metro's Solid Waste Department gave the Metro Council an update on the organics collection at a work session on Tuesday, asking if the council wanted further analysis on vehicle emissions caused by Portland's new collection program.
Councilors said they would rather wait a few more months before starting that analysis, giving the program a full year to see how much waste has to be hauled into the Evergreen State.
"I like the idea of doing it after a year of operations versus just six months," said Councilor Kathryn Harrington.
For its part, the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, responsible for the city's curbside composting program, said it's been working with Metro on the changes to the system.
"We strongly support Metro's efforts that have opened both of their transfer stations to take increased volumes of yard debris and food scraps," said Bruce Walker, the solid waste and recycling manager at the bureau, in a statement.
"We encourage Metro to continue to work with their contractor at Metro Central (Recology) to find composting facilities closer to the region to take materials during the peak season," he said.
Councilor Shirley Craddick said she'd like to know more about when the program will be expanded beyond Portland.
"What are the barriers interfering with other cities coming on board with the same program?" she asked. "I'd like to see this being done regionwide."
It's a matter of timing, said Metro program manager Matt Korot. Portland has been composting commercial food waste – from restaurants and grocery stores – since 2005. Several cities are moving toward starting commercial food waste collection programs, Korot said, which generally precedes collection of residential food waste.