Metro’s 2030 Regional Waste Plan sets a vision to reduce waste, protect health and the environment and provide excellent services for everyone. Creating a Regional System Facilities Plan will help implement that vision by identifying the places where people lack services and setting a strategy to invest in modernizing the region’s reuse, recycling and garbage infrastructure.

Project status update

Metro staff continued robust discussions with Metro Council in May and July to share community and partner input and clarify priorities for the facilities and program investments to include in the draft plan. Council directed staff to prioritize investments that reduce waste to landfill and increase regional capacity to reuse, recycle and compost.

Staff held additional engagements with Metro advisory committees, the community advisory group, local governments, reuse businesses and industry.

Based on these discussions, staff developed a narrowed set of investments including:

• Developing a network of six community drop-off depots for reuse, recycling, hazardous waste disposal, compost and self-haul garbage services.

• Funding for local reuse and repair businesses and building a regional reuse warehouse and a reuse mall.  

• Converting Metro Central into a regional hub for food waste and yard debris and investing in local private organics facilities.

• Partnering with private facilities to provide more infrastructure for waste from commercial haulers.

Earlier this year, Metro Council reviewed investment scenarios that ranged between $280-800 million. In July 2024, Metro Council supported a set of investments estimated at $273 million in construction costs (in today’s dollars). With this direction, staff have put together a draft Regional System Facilities Plan for review before Metro Council considers it for adoption in December 2024.

What’s next

The draft Regional System Facilities Plan is now available for review. There are two ways to provide feedback on the draft plan:  

• Leave a public comment. 

• Take an online survey.

Both opportunities will be open from Oct. 1-31, 2024. Input received will help shape the final plan to be considered for adoption by Metro Council in December 2024 and set the foundation for future work to make the plan a reality.   

The Regional System Facilities Plan project team will continue to meet with project partners in the fall. This includes a reuse roundtable and engagements with the Metro Policy Advisory Committee and Metro Mayors Consortium in September. Following the public comment period, Metro Council will hold a work session for staff to share public input and any proposed revisions to the plan. The plan will then be finalized in November and brought to Council to consider for adoption in December.