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Washington County commissioners review proposed amendments to solid waste and recycling rules
Summary
County staff asked the Board of Commissioners to support amendments to administrative rules that would set a 15-minute call-wait target with a callback option, add pollution and cyber insurance requirements for haulers, standardize multifamily minimum service volumes, and streamline reporting; staff said the board will consider final approval April 21.
County solid waste staff presented proposed amendments to Washington County's solid waste and recycling administrative rules and asked the Board of Commissioners for direction, saying they intend to return the measure for formal approval at the board's April 21 meeting.
"We're going to talk about everybody's favorite subject of garbage and recycling," Rusty Davis, the county's solid waste and recycling division manager, said as he opened the presentation. He told commissioners the package is intended to allow operational improvements and housekeeping edits to the existing rules governing collection in unincorporated Washington County.
The operational proposals Davis described include a 15-minute maximum phone wait-time target for hauler customer-service calls, combined with a mandatory call-back option when service cannot be provided within that window; two new insurance requirements (general pollution liability and cyber liability); removal of prescriptive source-separation language in favor of mixed recycling with web-based guidance for residents; and standardized minimum service volumes for multifamily properties (20 gallons for garbage, 20 gallons for mixed recycling, and one gallon for glass).
On housekeeping, staff said they pared the rules from 42 to 33 pages by eliminating redundancy, incorporated Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) contamination-reduction and reporting requirements tied to recycling modernization, added a reporting requirement for hauler emergency action plans, and defined "bulky waste" as anything that will not fit in a normal garbage or recycling receptacle.
Commissioners asked for implementation details. Commissioner Schneider raised the phone-standard question: "Are we expecting 100% of the calls to be answered that way?" Staff responded the 15-minute metric is a target selected after reviewing best practices (including Portland's approach), paired with a callback option and a 24-hour feedback loop when same-day service is not possible. "We know this is not going to be perfect right out of the gate and it'll require some work with the haulers," Davis said.
Staff also summarized stakeholder engagement: the Garbage and Recycling Advisory (GRA) committee reviewed the proposal on March 12 and voted unanimously to forward it to the board; county staff said they had also worked with the Washington County Haulers Association and individual haulers and had offered multiple public-comment opportunities (no public comments were received at the GRA meeting).
Several commissioners signaled support for the direction and asked staff to ensure rural unincorporated areas and smaller haulers are considered in implementation and in future rate-setting conversations. The proposal to standardize multifamily service volumes drew no substantive opposition in the work-session discussion.
Next steps: staff told commissioners they would bring a final ordinance or rule package back for formal action at the April 21 board meeting. The presentation materials (a clean copy and a tracked-change copy of the proposed administrative rules) were available in the public packet for review.
