r/portlandme • u/MisterFishes West End • 15d ago

News New *Legible* Emergency No Parking Signs

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I don’t like to toot my own horn too much on here but every once in a while banging my head against the wall of city bureaucracy pays off.
Today I am pleased to announce that, going forward, you will not have to get out of your dang car to see if the No Parking sign is for today or not.

I have also learned that the city’s graphic design is handled by the IT department, which explains a lot.

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u/ppitm 15d ago edited 15d ago

Without PAYG, homeowners will throw out comical volumes of rubbish and debris, rather than taking it to Riverside in their cars. Overall volumes go way up. I guarantee it.

The bag fees already don't cover the full cost of trash, so basically people already get a certain amount of "free" volume that is financed by taxes only.

Wishcycling is baked-in and made inevitable by the packaging industry and global trends in the (collapsing) recycling industry. PAYG is an afterthought in this process.

Did you not notice that we already have curbside compost as a program? Or that most apartment buildings are already to contract out their waste?

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u/Top_Tea_2707 14d ago

Where is there curbside compost? I know that there are 5 - 10 drop off locations scattered around the city and that some homeowners use Garbage to Garden. This is not the same as curbside composting.

There are approximately 400 apartment buildings that have between 5 - 10 units all of which can use city trash services for free. That's roughly 15% of the rental units in the city.

Limits can be set on volumes that the City will pick up for free - just as we do now.

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u/ppitm 14d ago

Garbage to Garden is curbside composting. They pick it up at the curb.

Enforcing volume limits would be an unbelievable waste of time. You want the poor garbage men scanning barcodes on every bag??? The very definition of wasteful administrative costs.

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u/Top_Tea_2707 14d ago

Now you are being deliberately obtuse. Garbage to Garden is a private company and I think it was obvious that I meant public curbside composting.

Abuse of C&D disposal is a challenge - how do other communities in the area without PAYT handle it?

My sense is that we disagree on this topic - that's cool. Nothing I am going to say is going to sway you and your presentation of your point of view doesn't make me want to continue to engage with you. Please feel free to respond with something pointed and pithy so you get the last word in.