BEND, Ore. — A pair of planned composting facilities near Crescent and Christmas Valley won’t be taking in commercial food waste from Portland, according to an official with the waste-handling company.
Instead, the compost will go to a company in Lane County for at least the next three years, said Dave Dutra of Recology Oregon Material Recovery.
The company runs a compost facility in North Plains west of Portland. Public outcry there about the odor of compost prompted Washington County to limit food waste coming from the city, allowing residential but not commercial waste as of April 1. Commercial waste is going to facilities in Aumsville, Eugene and Hood River, as well as two more in Washington, Dutra said. Soon, they’ll go to a Lane County company, which he declined to name, under a contract that will run until at least 2016.
The development has not stopped the plans of Larry Morrison, a Tualatin trucker who wants to build compost facilities near Crescent, an unincorporated area in north Klamath County, and Christmas Valley, an unincorporated area in Lake County, southeast of Bend. Morrison has said food waste would make up about 3 percent to 5 percent of the waste brought into the operation he is planning near Crescent.