The cost of getting rid of what you don’t want is going up following a meeting of the Umatilla County Board of Commissioners.
Also for several communities, recycling, and the cost of providing it, are lurking just over the horizon.
Commissioners Dan Dorran, John Shafer and Cindy Timmons met Feb. 7 and first heard from Gina Miller, county liaison for the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, accompanied by Humbert Refuse owner Katy King. King asked the county board to approve a rate increase of 10% for residential and commercial weekly collection, approximately 15% increase in drop box services and an increase of $10 per ton for those using the company-owned landfill.
Under the rate hike, Humbert’s cost for collecting a 60-gallon can increases from $17 to $18.70.
King in her proposal cited several reasons for the increase, including higher operating expenses, improvements at the company’s landfill and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s new permitting and increased rates. She also wrote the company needs more income to provide expanded recycling requirements per the Recycle Modernization Act, the law the 2021 Legislature passed that went into effect in 2022 and makes changes recycling the go into effect July 1, 2025.
The commissioners voted 3-0 to approve the increase for Humbert, which go into effect March 1.
The commissioners also voted 3-0 to renew operation license applications from Pendleton Sanitary Service Inc., Quality Compost, Humbert Refuse, Waste Connections of Oregon and Waste Management LLC.
On the heels of that decision, the commissioners voted 3-0 to approve a 3.5% increase across the board to the remaining waste disposal companies in Umatilla County.
Timmons asked if the upcoming Recycling Modernization Act might result in more litter “that isn’t going to get into the landfills.”
Mike McHenry, PSSI president and chairman of the county’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee responded.
“Anytime there’s a rate increase, and especially a significant one, we do have more litter to deal with because more people are not on the service,” he told the board. “In my experience after doing this a long time, that’s a cycle, and people get tired dealing with it. In less than a year people are back on the service.”
When the Recycle Modernization Act begins, he said, waste collection companies will have to provide the new service.
“It’s going to be a benefit for most of the citizens in the county, having commingled curbside recycling service,” McHenry said, “but it’s going to impact their rates. We need to be prepared for that and we’re trying to put the information out there.”
Timmons asked, “I’m a rural customer, of Humbert, actually. Will I see this happen very quickly?”
“We’re still in the rulemaking process,” McHenry responded, “trying to figure out what’s going to happen. The rule requires that any city over 4,000 population be required to provide the service. So the cities of Hermiston, Pendleton, Umatila and Boardman are now over 4,000 population. One thing we’re discussing at Solid Waste Advisory Committee is whether to implement this county-wide so that rural areas will have the commingled recycling service, or will we only do it in the required areas, within city limits. So our intention is to have depots in accessible areas initially.”
“You have opened a whole other can of worms there,” Shafer said,
Miller said the county can talk more about the Recycling Modernization Act as implementation nears.
Miller said the disposal companies will have to purchase all the equipment necessary to do the curbside recycling and then wait for the money to come later.
