Portland to open new diaper drop-off location
Who says Portland City Hall doesn't listen to its constituents? We were pleasantly surprised this morning to read that the city is responding to consumer complaints that the new bi-weekly garbage pickup schedule creates hardships for households that use diapers. The city's sustainability office says that beginning this Saturday, the city will be accepting soiled diapers, free of charge, at a centralized drop-off location in North Portland. The diapers will then be taken to a biogas facility just outside of Molalla for processing.
"Portlanders have been doing a great job with the new food waste composting program," said Susan Anderson, the city's sustainability chief, "but we know that families with people in diapers are having difficulties. The new pilot program will enable them to drop off their soiled diapers so that the waste can be properly reprocessed. We are hoping that people will stop placing them in the blue recycling bins."
The service will be provided without charge, but Anderson urged parents and caregivers to make a voluntary donation of 2 cents per diaper to help defray the cost of the program. The new drop-off site is at the city maintenance bureau facility at 2929 N. Kerby Avenue, near Emanuel Hospital. The facility will be in operation 24 hours a day beginning at 7 a.m. on Saturday. Diapers should be the disposable variety only, and they should be securely packaged in brown paper sacks, rather than plastic bags, which are harmful to the environment. Alternatively, they may be wrapped in newspaper. Users are urged to take public transportation or bicycle. The area is served by bus lines 4, 24, and 44. Further details are here.
| Posted at 9:32 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (31)
In other words, Sam and Randy are reading your blog, Jack, and they were terrified of being buried in old diapers. Good for them: they really didn't want to see what happened when the diaper hit the fan.
Posted by Texas Triffid Ranch | June 7, 2012 9:35 AM
Actually, this post is a spoof! But it's something the city ought to do.
Posted by Jack Bog | June 7, 2012 9:36 AM
SHhh!!! Let it play out for a couple weeks!
Posted by Pistolero | June 7, 2012 9:40 AM
No link and the brown paper bag, bicycle/bus transport suggestion tipped me off. I almost bought it though.
Posted by Tom | June 7, 2012 9:44 AM
I have added a couple of links.
Posted by Jack Bog | June 7, 2012 9:47 AM
Susan - don't discriminate against me because I have canine children rather than human children. I'll be on the bus with my bags of dog poop and will place it all on your desk.
Or maybe I should Go By Streetcar!
Posted by links | June 7, 2012 9:50 AM
What, no streetcar or MAX line? Of course, smell up all the buses - the next step is to ban children under 21 from the Streetcar so they can start opening up bar cars!
Posted by Erik H. | June 7, 2012 9:57 AM
OK...my first response was, "you are kidding, right?"
I had visions of lots of folks on the bus and the max and the trolley with bundles of leaking, soiled newspaper and brown paper bags! HEE! HEE!
Good one, Jack!
Posted by portland native | June 7, 2012 9:59 AM
Dear Portland:
If the North Portland pilot program is successful, we have plans for a 50,000 diaper facility in the Cully neighborhood.
Love,
Sam
Posted by Sam Adams | June 7, 2012 10:10 AM
Maybe a spoof but suggests maybe Crime -Met should bungie cord four or five 60 gal. roll carts to the unused bus bumper bike racks and let people drop in their stinkiest garbage at any bus stop.
I mean BOTH: stink, not wanted, unavoidable, and best appreciated when somewhere ELSE.
Posted by ltjd | June 7, 2012 10:19 AM
Molalla was the tip-off. There's no Max line for COP to transport the diapers there, it's in Clackamas County, and they like to shoot things out there to dispose of them.
Posted by umpire | June 7, 2012 10:21 AM
I fell for it. I was trying to imagine driving to North Portland through the August heat with multiple paper sacks of old diapers in the back seat.
There is still one viable real drop off point for parents: the front doors of City Hall.
Posted by Snards | June 7, 2012 10:31 AM
I see an emerging black market for garbage pick up.
Place anything you want in large black, heavy duty, yard debris bags and tightly zip tie them.
Call this cell phone for pick up. $45 per bag.
Some bureaucrat and pals form the office of sustainability will get caught running the operation. Picking up the bags and cash then dumping the bags in city garbage drop boxes.
Posted by Niles | June 7, 2012 10:42 AM
It's (literally) for the children!!
Posted by NW Portlander | June 7, 2012 10:43 AM
Well, you've given new meaning to (or at least clarified) the expression, "That's my $.02 worth."
Posted by Allan L. | June 7, 2012 11:17 AM
My radar went up when the statement said "families with people in diapers" instead of babies. Just the vision of the poor parents riding their bicycle or the bus with a big 'ol paper bag of smelly dirty dirty diapers made me chuckle. A spoof like this only works in a place like Portlandia.
Posted by Usual Kevin | June 7, 2012 11:20 AM
Dang it. I have two tots in diapers and was excited. Then dismayed - because who has time to drive to north Portland? Then I was amused (by the .02 donation suggestion and brown paper bag decree). Finally, I felt sad. Sad that this actually seemed real in today's Portland landscape.
It's like living in the Twilight Zone, but stinkier.
Posted by TacoDave | June 7, 2012 11:30 AM
Great Portlandia skit!
Posted by R1Ray | June 7, 2012 11:35 AM
OK, this post is a spoof, Bog admits. But when I read that dirty diapers could be wrapped in newspaper, I thought "Finally! The perfect use for the Oregonian."
Posted by adp | June 7, 2012 12:35 PM
Bugger. Jack, ya got me, ya rattlesnake. This will teach me not to check out the links.
Posted by Texas Triffid Ranch | June 7, 2012 12:41 PM
There is still one viable real drop off point for parents: the front doors of City Hall.
With a MAX stop in front and in back, bus stops on either side and within a block away, a nice covered bike parking area, and parking lots within a few blocks.
I hear the 200 Market building has some kind of a energy producing thing in it that takes biomass or something and turns it into electricity. Surely, a biogas facility using these diapers would fit in on the ground currently used for the City Hall Garden.
Posted by Erik H. | June 7, 2012 12:51 PM
Jack, the best. Now you got my wife reading Bojack more frequently...for the humor and dark humor.
Posted by lw | June 7, 2012 1:39 PM
My first thought was, "Who's going to drive to N. Portland? City Hall's closer." Next: Package disposable diapers in paper bags or newspaper? Wouldn't we have to pay for those?
By the end, it was pretty clear - but all in all, an excellent read (and certainly in many aspects, believable!)
Posted by Max | June 7, 2012 1:50 PM
Uh oh, i may be in trouble. Since the bus was going past there anyway, I just put some diapers in the bag and left them for the driver to drop off on his way. Ooopsie.
Posted by concordbridge | June 7, 2012 2:22 PM
At last- a perfect use for the local newspaper!
Posted by The Other Dave | June 7, 2012 3:23 PM
You're already using it to line your food slop bucket and yard debris bin, I hope.
Posted by Jack Bog | June 7, 2012 3:44 PM
"There is still one viable real drop off point for parents: the front doors of City Hall." - Addressed to: "Dear mayor" of course!
Posted by TR | June 8, 2012 12:17 AM
I am a full-time working mother with two children. When they were small I used cloth diapers. Enough of the complaining and whining about the lack of weekly trash pick-up for disposable diaper users. Just use cloth diapers - problem solved.
Posted by Vidamae | June 8, 2012 10:07 AM
Nice try, Vidamae, but one size does NOT fit all. I have five kids and work days while my wife works night shifts. We *barely* keep up with laundry as it is. In fact, this morning when I got out of the shower I went to get a fresh towel and I bet you can guess what I found...
Using cloth diapers isn't feasible from a time-management perspective or an energy cost one. Your claim of "whining" sounds whiny. FYI.
Posted by TacoDave | June 8, 2012 11:42 AM
The cost of driving them to NoPo for dropoff is going to be much higher than two cents per diaper, unless you live in in NoPo.
Not to mention all the extra car trips producing Co2, the additional traffic, and the stink of the receiving bins.
That's why civilized societies have curbside pickup of garbage. All garbage, not just the P/C recyclables.
Posted by Mister Tee | June 8, 2012 10:04 PM
Doh! You got me, Jack...It actually sounds like a decent compromise: should have known it was a spoof.
There's nothing decent about the CoP.
Posted by Mister Tee | June 8, 2012 10:06 PM