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Read back issues of the Portland Observer at www.portlandobserver.com
‘City of Roses’
Volume XXXXI, Number 4 7
Wednesday • November 23. 2011
Committed to Cultural Diversity •
’C U f Ò d
on munin service
Grumbling over Garbage
Some residents
have trouble
adjusting to
service changes
late less garbage, which has been pushed
back to every other week.
“If you do it correctly, you shouldn’t
have garbage at all,” said Penny.
to be hauled away.
“Large households naturally produce
more garbage,” said Edgar Gayheart III,
42, who lives with four other roommates.
Portiani •
C ari H achmann
T he P ortland O bserve
by
A full trash bag sits on Hannah Mwolo’s
front porch outside her N ortheast
Roselawn Street home. Her garbage bin is
overflowing on the curb, waiting for the
next garbage pick-up.
Three weeks after Portland imple
mented a food composting program to
reduce landfill waste by encouraging
people to recycle food scraps, some resi
dents are having problems adjusting to the
change.
Though many residents are transitioning
just fine and enthused about the environ
mental benefits, the new program that
requires residential households to dump
food scraps from a city-provided con
tainer into their yard debris roll cart has
caused some confusion and grumbling
among a fraction of Portlanders.
City officials and garbage haulers are
responding to questions about garbage
route and schedule changes and compost
particulars, but W aste M anagem ent
worker Sean Penny said the most com
mon complaint was the reversal of gar
bage and compost pick-up days.
Now, compost is hauled every week,
emphasizing the program’s incentive that
if people recycle more, they will accumu
4
PHOTO BY CARI H a CHMANN/T h E PORTLAND OBSERVER
A garbage bin is filled past capacity as area residents adjust from once a week
pickups to every other week. At the same time, pickups for food composting are
now every week, and city officials hope residents will adjust to the changes.
Yet larger households or those with
infants or children still produce high-
volumes of garbage that is not being
composted and can’t wait an extra week
He said the garbage for his five person
household is overflowing, even with re
cycling.
A day before garbage pick-up, you can
In the Neighborhood wha‘ are you
Family. Friends.
The holiday brings
people together. I
just like to give back
this time o f year.
Cody Carlberg, 20
Northeast Portland
¿
.B
am thankful fo r
family, mv daughter, mv
grandchildren, and to l>e
healthy.
E arnest ¡ne Mili hell, 72
Northeast Portland
count at least one in 10 curbside cans
brimming with trash in one northeast
Portland neighborhood, or worse, see
plastic bags dumped on the sidewalk or on
side of the road.
“Every two weeks is not enough,” said
Mwolo, a native of Liberia who lives with
her three young children and keeps bags
packed with trash outside her home. The
northeast Portland resident said that be
cause her family does not produce a great
deal of food scraps, they cannot fit two
weeks of garbage in one can.
“It’s terrible,” said another local resi
dent Dorothy Hart.
“I am used to them picking it up every
week,” she said.
As Thanksgiving approaches, leaves
are falling like rain and some households
worry about extra fees to cover garbage
excess.
As few as 15 percent of Portlanders
opted to upsize their cans from typical
sized 32 or 35 gallon carts to 60 or more
gallons. In a money-tight economy, how
ever, most people can’t afford additional
monthly costs.
Jack and Karen Lewis, a retired couple
whose household grew from 3 to 6 people
within the last year, upsized both garbage
and composting bins from 35 gallons to
60 gallon carts. After two weeks of raking
and consuming, Jack Lewis, 75, said their
cans are full, but it varies depending on the
amount of debris.
“I think they should lower the price,”
said Johnny Warren, a senior who lives
with his wife.
Gayheart said he and his roommates
continued
on page 5
thankful for this holiday season?
I just moved here, so
I ’m thankful fo r a
place to live. I'm
•sharing a home with
good friends.
Erin Sweeny, 34
Northeast Portland
I'm thankful that I ’ve got a
family, a job and a house,
and I'm thankful I have my
health because in today's
market if you don't have
your health then you 're
not staying working.
Hugh Watson, 50
Northeast Portland