Volunteers Raised Over $200 For Mt. Scott-Arleta Neighborhood Association

On a sunny Saturday, May 12th, volunteers from Mt. Scott Arletta Neighborhood Association hit the streets to help the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability get the word out about the new curbside composting program, and help neighbors find solutions to any problems they had. Neighbors knocked on doors armed with questions and information about the new curbside composting program.

Do you include the food? Did you know that you can now put your pizza box in the green bin? In case you didn't already know, the bright green roll bins that used to only take grass clippings and weeds now accepts food scraps, including meat and oils. The City of Portland started curbside composting this past fall.

The aim was to educate people about the program, answer their questions if we could, or point them to places to find the right answer. Ultimately the City wants to bring the initial high participation rate even higher. Volunteers spoke directly to people at 69 households and left informational door hangers at 125 more houses.

For the most part, people are enthusiastic about being able to turn their . A few were skeptical, but were putting food in the green bin anyhow. Some expressed  concern over the reduced garbage pick up, especially in households that produce a lot of non-compostable garbage, like diapers. 

MSANA earned $2.00 for every conversation they had at the door about the program- equal to $138.00.  MSANA also earned $.50 for every door hanger left behind- equal to $62.50.  A total of $200.50 was earned for the Mt. Scott-Arleta Neighborhood Association.