Hillsboro Weighs Garbage Rate Increase This Month

HILLSBORO, OR — Fallout from the Chinese ban on accepting the world's recycling has made it to Hillsboro. The Hillsboro City Council this month will vote to raise the city's garbage rates in response to rising costs associated with sorting materials and finding new facilities to process the city's recyclable garbage.

At its meeting May 15, the city council will decide whether to raise rates for both commercial and residential customers, with the potential change scheduled to take effect as of June 1. The rate increase will affect all rate tiers, with the average customer cost for a 35-gallon roll cart increasing by $2.90 per month.

The increased rate, however, will still be among the lowest in the metro region, according to Peter Brandom, a senior project manager for the city.

"The collection of garbage and recyclable materials from Hillsboro homes and businesses is performed by six private waste collection companies that are authorized under contract with the city to perform the services within established boundaries," Brandom explained in a letter sent to residents May 2. "The rates which the companies charge for collection services are set by the city council and are reviewed annually based on an assessment of company revenues and expenses.

"The annual assessment to determine whether rates are adequate to cover expenses — or whether an increase is warranted — includes many variables, such as costs for labor, fuel, health care, landfill, and recycling," he continued. "As a city, we take every measure possible to avoid increases in rates. However, as costs increase, rate adjustments can be necessary."

Rate adjustments aren't exclusive to Hillsboro, the metro region, or Oregon, either. China's ban on accepting the world's recycling has had far-reaching consequences around the globe, from the U.S. to the U.K.

“My inventory is out of control,” Steve Frank, of Pioneer Recycling Services in Clackamas, told the New York Times back in January — barely a week after China's ban was made official.

Along with Frank — who personally owns "two plants that collect and sort 220,000 tons of recyclable materials each year," a majority of which was until recently exported to China, according to the NYT — officials in Canada and several European countries have reported similar problems since the ban went into effect.

The ban, Frank told the NYT, "has caused 'a major upset of the flow of global recyclables.' Now, he said, he is hoping to export waste to countries like Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Malaysia — 'anywhere we can' — but 'they can’t make up the difference.'"

"Costs to the collection companies have risen dramatically, and it will take time to address this challenge. However, this situation also presents a great opportunity for a comprehensive, collaborative review of how we recycle, from the curbside cart to the market place," Brandom wrote. "Ultimately, we will identify better ways to recycle, and we will reduce what we put in the landfill."

But those ambitious initiatives come with a cost; specifically, a nearly-$3 raise in average customer garbage rates — ending five years of static garbage rates in Hillsboro.

For more information on the city's proposed rate increase for garbage services, including answers to the most frequently asked questions, visit Hillsboro-Oregon.gov.

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