Troutdale council approves modest solid-waste rate increase, declines immediate rollout of compost and lockable carts

Troutdale — The City Council on Sept. 23 approved a resolution establishing revised solid-waste collection fees to restore the contracted operating margin for the city’s hauler, Waste Management, and rescinded Resolution No. 2603. Councilors voted to adopt the operating-margin adjustment only; optional services discussed — curbside food-waste collection and latching (self-locking) carts — were not added to the adopted rate schedule.

City Environmental Specialist Ryan Largura presented the rate review and options to the council, saying the proposed base increase was driven primarily by higher regional disposal costs and year-to-year operating shortfalls. "Food waste... that's looking like it'd be about 73¢ per month add on," Largura said when describing the estimated incremental cost if the council chose to add a residential food-waste service. He told the council that Waste Management’s operating margin had been about 2.9% for 2024, below the 8–12% margin guaranteed in the franchise agreement.

Council members and residents debated several options: (1) a base operating-margin adjustment to bring Waste Management within the contract range; (2) the base adjustment plus residential food-waste collection; (3) the base plus purchase of latching roll carts; or (4) a combination of base + food-waste + latching carts. Public comment and a short online survey of roughly 350 responses leaned against adding new fees for optional services. "As far as the rate increases go, I'm fine with option 1," Paul Wilcox, a Troutdale resident, told the council during public comment. Resident Tiffany Long asked the council to consider latching only on recycling carts because, she said, recycling (loose paper and cardboard) is the material that most frequently blows from containers into the neighborhood.

Councilors repeatedly noted the city’s franchise agreement with Waste Management guarantees an 8–12% operating margin and that delaying a rate correction would likely increase future requests from the company. Several councilors said the most prudent near-term choice was Option 1. After discussion, the council voted to adopt the resolution that implements the operating-margin adjustment only; staff said they would remove or clarify tables in the packet that showed optional add-ons and would return a cleaned-up rate schedule if needed.

What the council approved: the resolution in the meeting packet establishing solid-waste collection fees (the packet attached a rate schedule reflecting the base operating-margin increase). What the council declined: a mandatory, citywide roll-out of curbside food-waste collection and a city-funded program to replace standard carts with self-latching carts at this time. The council noted either service could be added later through a future rate review.

Details and caveats: Largura said a large share of Waste Management’s requested increase is attributable to higher Metro tipping fees (regional disposal fees at Metro transfer stations), rising recycling processing costs and broader inflationary pressures on labor, fuel and fleet maintenance. He described compost processing partner options (named in the presentation as "Dirt Huggers") and warned that diverting residential food waste would also shift some yard/organics tonnage away from Allwood Recyclers, a local yard-debris receiver. Largura also flagged accessibility and durability questions for new latching carts, and noted residents could buy a latching cart directly from the hauler if they preferred to avoid a citywide charge.

The vote: The council adopted the resolution to update collection fees (option 1) by unanimous council vote (7–0); staff will finalize the rate schedule language to reflect only the adopted change and circulate the corrected materials.

Why it matters: The decision restores contractual revenue for the hauler and avoids immediate new recurring monthly charges to households for food-waste collection or latching carts while leaving the door open to revisit those services in a future rate review. Councilors flagged trade-offs: workforce safety and route efficiency gains from self-latching carts versus the extra monthly cost to every household; and environmental benefits of curbside food-waste diversion balanced against extra collection expense and potential impacts to a local yard-debris business.

Next steps: Staff will clean up the resolution attachments to remove the optional add-on tables that created confusion and return updated rate schedule documents if the council decides later to adopt food-waste service or a cart replacement program.