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Learn how Portland’s commercial waste collection system works, how it differs from the residential system, and how past policy choices and community priorities shaped the system in place today.
How Portland's commercial waste system works
Portland's commercial waste system serves businesses, multifamily properties, and construction and demolition sites. These customers generate approximately two-thirds of the city's waste.
Who is served by the commercial system?
Portland's commercial waste system covers:
- Multifamily properties with 5 or more units
- Small and large businesses
- Institutions (schools, hospitals, nonprofits)
- Construction and demolition (C&D) projects
It does not include homes with 1–4 units (houses, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes) which are served through Portland's residential waste system.
An open-market system
Portland uses an open-market system for commercial waste. This means:
- Many private waste hauling companies are permitted to operate in Portland.
- Customers choose their hauler.
- Prices and contract terms are negotiated directly between the customer and the hauler.
Some agreements are written contracts, while others are informal.
The City sets basic requirements but does not set prices or assign haulers to specific territories.
What waste haulers do
Permitted commercial garbage and recycling companies, or "haulers," collect:
- Garbage
- Mixed recycling (paper, metal, plastic)
- Glass recycling
- Food scraps (compost)
- Bulky waste
- Construction and demolition debris
City requirements for haulers
To operate in Portland, haulers must get a commercial collection permit each year. Requirements include:
- Trucks must meet emission and safety standards
- Collect mixed recycling and glass recycling
- Collect food scraps (compost) upon request
- Provide color-coded containers (gray for garbage, blue for mixed recycling, orange for glass, green for food scraps)
- Label all waste containers with City-approved decals
- Charge the same or less for recycling than for garbage
- Provide annual recycling and compost education to customers
View all requirements for commercial haulers
City requirements for customers
Depending on the customer, requirements include:
Businesses
- Recycle paper, metal, plastic, and glass
- Compost food scraps (for food-generating businesses)
- Ensure recycling containers are as conveniently located as garbage containers
Multifamily properties
- Provide mixed recycling and glass recycling
- Meet minimum service levels for each unit
- Use approved garbage and recycling signs in waste areas
- Provide annual education to tenants and information when new tenants move in
Construction and demolition sites
- Deconstruct houses built before 1941 instead of demolishing them.
- Send C&D waste to a Metro-certified facility that follows Metro's recycling and recovery requirements to minimize landfill use and keep reusable materials circulating.
View all requirements for commercial customers
Other service providers in the system
Alongside permitted haulers, several other groups play a role:
- Valet services that collect waste from multifamily tenants' doors and take it to on-site bins.
- Junk haulers who remove bulky items and reusable goods.
- Waste brokers who coordinate waste collection contracts for businesses.
- Food-only haulers who collect and process food scraps.
- Independent recyclers who collect recyclables only.
- Self-haulers who haul their own waste to local disposal facilities, such as a contractor working on a small remodel project or a large construction company that owns dump trucks.
Some of these services are not currently regulated under City Code, even though they interact with the commercial system.
How the commercial system differs from the residential system
Portland's residential and commercial waste systems operate very differently.
Residential system overview
Portland's residential waste system serves homes with 1 to 4 units. It uses an exclusive franchise system, which means the City sets rates and services and assigns companies exclusive service territories.
The residential exclusive franchise system began in 1992, when 69 companies were given service territories. Over time, companies bought and sold these franchises, and today there are nine residential haulers. The territories themselves have stayed the same; they are not redrawn when ownership changes.
To view the residential hauler territories, open this map.
Side-by-side comparison: Commercial vs. Residential
| | Commercial waste system | Residential waste system |
|---|---|---|
| Who is served | Businesses, multifamily properties (5+ units), and construction and demolition contractors. | Homes with 1–4 units (houses, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes). |
| System structure | Open-market system where customers choose any City-permitted hauler. | Exclusive franchise system where the City assigns a hauler to each service territory. |
| How haulers are selected | Any hauler that meets City requirements can obtain a commercial permit; many haulers operate citywide. | Haulers operate in territories granted by the City via a franchise agreement. |
| Who sets prices | Customers negotiate prices directly with private haulers. Prices and contract terms vary. | The City sets rates and reviews them annually. All customers in the same service level pay the same price. |
| What are the prices | Previous research showed a wide range in prices. | Residential garbage, recycling, and compost collection starts at around $40 per month. Prices increase for larger garbage containers. See all rates. |
| Contracts | Contracts are common but not required by the City. Customers negotiate terms. | Customers are assigned a hauler based on location. No contracts are involved. |
| Types of service | Wide range of container types and collection schedules based on customer needs: dumpsters, compactors, roll carts, food-only collection, bulky waste, drop boxes. | Standardized City-set containers and collection schedules for garbage, mixed recycling, glass recycling, and compost. |
| Route structure | Companies create routes across the city, often mixing business and multifamily customers. | Routes occur within franchise territories. |
| City oversight | Lower oversight: City sets rules for collection standards but does not regulate pricing or contract terms. | High oversight: City regulates service frequency, rates, territories, equipment standards, safety, and customer service. |
| Data reporting | Limited data; open-market structure means the City receives far less information about customers, routes, or system performance. | Required and standardized; City receives detailed information from haulers. |
Historical context: Why Portland's commercial system works the way it does
Portland's commercial waste system has always been an open-market system, where businesses and multifamily properties choose their hauler and negotiate their own prices.
The City reviewed the commercial system in 1993, 1999, and 2005. Each review had different objectives, and each ended with a decision to maintain the open-market system.
Early recycling rules highlighted system challenges (1987)
In 1987, the City required haulers to offer optional recycling to commercial customers. Few businesses participated, showing that voluntary recycling alone was not enough to meet the City's recycling goals.
Businesses pushed to keep the open market (1993)
During the City's first major review of the system in 1993, Portland considered creating franchised service territories, similar to the residential model.
Businesses opposed franchising the system because they wanted to keep:
- Control over which hauler they worked with
- The ability to negotiate contract terms and pricing
The open-market system stayed in place. To address low recycling rates, businesses supported a new requirement to recycle 50% of their waste by 2005.
City expands recycling assistance (1999)
A second review in 1999 focused on business recycling performance. It led to stronger office paper recycling programs and expanded City technical assistance to help businesses meet the 50% recycling goal.
Review shows trade-offs (2005)
The most recent review in 2005 examined the potential impacts of:
- Improving route efficiency for commercial haulers
- Requiring businesses to collect food scraps
The review found:
- Some collection routes were not efficient
- Overall, commercial system costs were lower than in nearby cities
- Customers paid more for roll carts and less for dumpsters compared to the surrounding areas
- Businesses were open to the food scrap collection requirement but wanted to maintain the ability to choose their hauler and negotiate rates.
Based on these results, the City kept the open-market system and added a new requirement for many businesses to collect food scraps for composting.
Why this matters today
Understanding this history helps explain why the current system works the way it does.
Since the last review in 2005, community members and staff have raised concerns about the system, including:
- Difficulty setting up service for small businesses and customers with limited English proficiency
- Lack of price transparency
- Hard-to-cancel auto-renewing contracts
- Inconsistent outreach and education
- Noise, congestion, and route inefficiency
- Varied levels of recycling and compost participation
- Limited data available to understand system performance
These concerns show the need for a comprehensive review of the commercial waste system to ensure it works well for everyone, including tenants, property managers, small and large businesses, waste haulers, and the people who live near collection routes.
Learn more
Portland is taking an in-depth look at our commercial waste system through a multi-year Commercial Waste System Review. The goal of this project is to understand how garbage, recycling, and composting services work for businesses, apartment buildings, and construction sites and to make our system fairer, easier to use, and better for people and the environment.