Garbage and Recycling

Knowing how much food you are wasting sets up opportunities for cost savings and waste prevention.

Establishing a food waste tracking system is the first step to understand what foods may be wasted and why. The information gathered from tracking helps you identify how waste prevention can make the biggest difference in your overall food costs and your business’s commitment to sustainability. An ongoing tracking system sets a baseline and shows progress as you initiate food waste prevention steps.

Get started

• Identify areas where pre-service food waste may be generated (prep stations, hot and cold line).
• Determine how many and what size of bins you need. Smaller bins or see-through Cambros may make it easier to identify items in the bin.
• Label bins to indicate which bins to be used. Start with a bin labeled Pre-Service. You could also separate waste by loss reason (e.g. overproduction, expired).

Train staff

• Inform staff the plan, when and how long you will measure food waste.
• Show staff the bins, explain where they will be placed. Make it clear that all pre-service food waste will be separated and collected in designated bins.
• Ask staff scraping wasted food into the bins to fill out the tracker sheet each time. Emphasize that it’s important to record how full the bin is, what food was collected and the reason the food was wasted.
• Engage staff in discussions about how to reduce food loss.

Track waste

• Place labeled containers and tracker sheets in each location where you will collect food waste, such as the prep station, dish pit, etc.
• Record information on the tracking sheet each time wasted food is scraped into the bin. Check in with staff and answer any questions.

Analyze data

Use the data to start conversations and generate ideas about how to prevent waste.

• Tally the total number of bins or gallons of food waste during a week, and convert to weight of wasted food (use the conversion table).
• Divide the total number of covers during a week by the total pounds of food waste to determine how much food is being wasted per cover.
• Calculate the cost per pound of wasted food. If you don’t know the per pound cost of food items you can use $1.17, which is the estimated median 
  cost/lb across all food categories. For higher-priced items it will be more valuable to use actual average cost/lb to know how much money you can save through waste prevention.
• Once you’ve determined the cost of wasted food, you can compare that to the cost of food purchases or sales. Ask us for a Food Waste Analysis Spreadsheet that provides more detailed instructions and analysis formulas.

Tracking Food Waste

A strategy to reduce food waste (for employees)

Reasons for food loss

• Trim waste: Food that was cut or trimmed off because it’s inedible or not used in menu items.
• Overproduction: Food donation organizations need to access the time, effort and coordination necessary to pick up or receive your donation.
• Spoilage: Food that goes bad or spoils before it is used.
• Expired/dated: Food that was prepped or prepared but not used as planned.
• Burned/contaminated: Food that is not usable because it was improperly cooked or contaminated.
• Dropped: Food that was dropped or mishandled before it reached the customer.
• Equipment failure: Food that was wasted because equipment breaks or power is lost.

For more information, contact:
Clackamas County Sustainability & Solid Waste
503-742-4458
greenbiz@clackamas.us 

Disposal, rental, mileage & other fees are additional

Open Drop Box:

• 10-20 cubic yard: $179.50
  • Lidded/Specialized-requiring deadhead roundtrip: $204.50
• 30 cubic yard: $189.50
• 40 cubic yard: $199.50

Compacted Drop Box:

• Less than 25 cubic yards: $204.50
• 25 - 34 cubic yards: $233.50
• 35 cubic yards and greater: $252.50

Industrial Special Waste Drop Box:

• 10-20 cubic yard: $190.50
• 30 cubic yard: $207.50

Other fees

Rental Fee:

• Per day (after 2 working days at one site): $10.00
• Per month (Occasional Customer collection of less than one load per week): $100.00
• Per month (Permanent customer): $100.00
• Per Month Equipment Fee: Lidded/Specialty Drop Box: $20.00

Delivery Fee¹:

• Urban zone: $40.00
• All other zones: $50.00

Mileage Fee: 

• $4.70 per mile over 18 miles roundtrip from where the truck is stationed (if in Clackamas County, if not then from the Metro South Transfer Station) for a repeat customer and for over 18 miles of truck operation for a one-stop drop
  box customer.

Multifamily Service Fee:

Additional fee for communities using compactors and drop boxes to collect garbage. Fee is charged per unit per month.

• 5-299 units: $1.60
• 300 - 399 units: $1.45
• More than 399 units: $1.40

Incidental Service Fees:

• Stand by time - waiting for box to be cleared, cars to be moved, etc.²: $7.00
• Leveling load - if driver must spend time leveling load to safely haul.²:  $7.00
• Wash out - if requested by customer or box is contaminated: $30.00
• Compactor turn-around - if repositioning required to enable collection and tip: $40.00
• Deadhead round trip - specialized boxes that cannot be exchanged: $25.00
• Dry run - if scheduled collection is prevented because box is blocked or customer is not ready: $30.00

¹For the occasional customer, the delivery charge shall be made for the first drop box at a given location within a 30-day period. For the repeat customer, the delivery change shall be made for service at different locations.

²Charged in 5 minute increments.