It is the policy of the City of Portland to reduce the amount of solid waste, both generated and disposed of, by promoting aggressive waste prevention and recycling activities.  The City shall promote the development of environmentally and economically sound practices regarding the collection, processing and end use of solid waste, recyclable material and compostable material.  In order to attain these goals and protect public health and the environment, the City shall regulate collection of solid waste, recyclable and compostable materials within the City.  In carrying out this policy, the goals of this Chapter are:

A.   To promote sustainability of the system of solid waste and recycling collection, by seeking to maximize efficiency, equity and economic vitality, improve worker safety and reduce environmental and human health impacts over the entire life cycle of the materials.

B.  To set and achieve recycling goals for Portland that are among the highest in the nation.

C.   To achieve a recycling goal of 75 percent by 2015 and promote highest value use of recovered materials.

D.   To reduce per capita waste generation below 2005 levels by the year 2015. 

E.   To target reductions in toxic waste, to minimize its harmful effects and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

F.  To ensure the safe and sanitary collection, transportation and recovery of solid waste, recyclable and compostable materials.

G.  To provide Portland residents and businesses the opportunity to recycle more materials through convenient on-site, curbside and depot collection programs and through the addition of recyclable materials to the curbside collection program as appropriate.

H.  To establish and enforce solid waste, recyclable and compostable material collection standards to ensure uniform, cost effective and high quality service delivery to all residential customers.

I.  To establish rates for residential waste collection which are fair to the public, encourage waste reduction, and promote safe, efficient collection.

J.  To promote community awareness in order to achieve the highest participation possible in the solid waste and recycling collection system.

K.  To enhance solid waste reduction and recycling in the multifamily, commercial, institutional and industrial sectors by ensuring that comprehensive recycling systems are provided at every establishment not covered by the residential franchise, and that owners of the establishments encourage extensive use of those systems by all employees.

L.  To undertake research, studies and demonstration projects on developing more efficient, economical and effective methods of solid waste reduction, recycling and collection.