I'll never forget when my neighbor 

corralled me and told me all those years
ago that my composter was 
attracting vermin and smelled and 
could I please --er--DO something with it?
I enclosed it more and moved it. 

That's what an entire neighborhood is telling the City of Portland

 in advance of their latest big idea imported from their brethren 

in San Francisco: Curbside food scrap recycling. 

Portland City Commissioners are fast tracking a food scrap recycling 

program that will cost taxpayers more while giving them fewer services. 

The one advantage: San Francisco does it so it must be a "good idea" 

(like banning Happy  Meals and the sale of goldfish!).
The idea is that garbage will be picked up every other week while 

food scraps are picked up every week. Mayor Sam Adams claims that 

of the 2000 people who he claims took part in 
the pilot program  87% were wild about it. We'll see if we can find 

the poll question that came up with that extraordinary figure. 

We've seen the kinds of shenanigans the Council has played with 

their polls questions before. See HERE. And why are we going to 

food scrap recycling? Oh, it's because of that meaningless and a
spirational-only manifesto the Climate Action Plan:

Food scrap collection is part of the Climate Action Plan, which was adopted
by the Portland City Council in 2009: Food and food-soiled paper account
for approximately 30 percent of residential garbage by weight.

But has this idea been tried before? Yes. And did it work? No.  
In 1992 the Cully neighborhood was the site of a composting facility. It was a joint 
venture with Metro. Grand Opening! Grand Closing! It stank so bad that 
neighbors were beseeching local politicos to get rid of the darned thing. 

Finally, the announcement came:

          RIEDEL ENVIRONMENTAL TO SUSPEND OPERATIONS
                   AT PORTLAND COMPOSTING FACILITY
    PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 22 /PRNewswire/ --  Riedel 
Environmental Technologies Inc.
(AMEX: RIE) announced today it would suspend operations 
at its Portland, Ore., garbage composting facility by the 
end of January. The facility has been in testing since the
 spring of 1991 and has experienced a number of operational 
difficulties, including some odor emissions.
    The company has submitted a plan for odor control to
the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.The cost of the 
odor control  plan is expected to be 
approximately $3.5 million, according to Gene Martone, 
president of Riedel Oregon Compost Company Inc. (ROCCI), 
the Riedel subsidiary which owns the plant.  
ROCCI has been unable to secure additional financing for 
the odor control improvements.  In addition, ROCCI has been 
experiencing negative cash flow from operations at the facility 
in excess of $200,000 per month.
    The facility was financed in part by municipal bonds 
with a Credit Suisse letter of credit which guarantees 
repayment of the bonds. As previously announced, Credit 
Suisse has notified ROCCI of defaults under the letter 
of credit documents.  Martone said the negotiations between 
the company, Credit Suisse, and the Metropolitan Service 
District have been under way concerning the future of the
 plant for some time.
    -O-             1/22/92

Cue Lucy and the football. Currently the folks in

A San Francisco-based garbage company, Recology, is asking the City for

permission to process rotten food and meat on SE 101st, right next to Johnson

Creek and bordered by the Lents Community, Mt. Scott, and the Springwater Trail.

Increased truck traffic, noise, dust, pollution, and disease-carrying vermin will take

over the community. Odors of rotting meat and decomposing food will have a huge

effect on everyone in the community, including those living on the West side of I-205.

With children playing at Playhaven Park to the south, bicyclists and hikers using the

Springwater Trail adjacent to the plant, and family neighborhoods all around the facility,

THIS DOESN’T SMELL RIGHT!