Portland, Ore. Wants to Mandate Business Recycling

Date: February 21, 2008

Source: News Room

Portland Oregon city officials are pursuing the final frontier in waste: business recycling. The city's phased-in recycling mandate will ultimately make it mandatory for businesses to recycle all paper, cardboard, and food and drink containers, and 75% of their construction debris. Portland has required businesses to recycle half of their waste since 1996, joining Seattle, Chicago, San Diego County and others with business-recycling mandates. Portland businesses already claim to recycle 63% of the waste generated but businesses are wary of mandates and non-market based systems to push it higher. The City Council is also said to be considering a franchise system that assigns haulers a specific territory in exchange for volume discounts and contractual mandates including those for recycling as an alternative. The franchise system has many efficiency benefits resulting from better routing, reduced truck volume, and waste volume consolidation at transfer, processing and disposal sites.

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