There are many pros of putting a compost trial in Eugene. Eugene is a very eco and vegetarian-friendly city, so the compost trial is not a surprise. Being a college city many students live in apartments or dorms, making it very difficult to compost, sometimes even recycle. The compost trial also allows putting meat and other things that would not be found in a backyard compost. This gives residents an opportunity to expand their composting abilities. Composting puts food waste to use instead of filling up landfills. Eugene alone produces 40 million tons of food waste a year. Finally, the compost stays in the community, which will benefit small, local businesses.

Portland Compost Trial

In April, 2010 Portland began its curbside compost trial in four neighborhoods, consisting of 2,000 households. After the success of the trial the Portland Curbside Compost Program began citywide on October 31, 2011. In April, 2014 an audit found that 85% of residents were collecting and composting compostable material, compared to 58% of businesses. They also found that 77% of the compostable material found in the landfills comes from the business sector. There was a decrease in total of residential garbage collected during the first quarter of the year. In 2010 22,722 tons of residential garbage were collected in the first quarter of the year, in 2011 23,052 tons were collected, and in 2012 12,902 tons were collected. Seven months after the citywide composting program began 59,000 tons residential compost had been collected. Overall garbage has decreased by 44%, recycling has increased by 12%, and composting is almost three times as common. Less then 1% of people were putting out contaminated compostable material, the city then issues these households a warning.

The compost goes to community gardens, as well as being sold back to the community. The compost is made up of food: meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy, baked goods, grains, nuts, seeds, coffee, produce, paper, table scraps and leftovers. It also contains yard debris: weeds, branches, house plants, grass, clippings. flower, and leaves. After compost is collected from the curbside, it is processed at on of Oregon’s commercial composting facilities. Compost can then be purchased from Recology or the Sunderland Recycling Facility at $20 per cubic yard. A portion of the compost goes to community gardens in Portland.