PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) -
The environmental and financial benefits of the Curbside Composting Plan may not be worth it to some Portlanders forced to live with the mess and the stench of sitting garbage.
This is the first summer that about 165,000 homes in Portland must take part in the program that requires the separation of food waste and regular trash.
While the food waste is picked up weekly, some Portlanders are having a hard time adapting to having regular trash only picked up every other week.
Some people have run into problems with the new pick-up schedule, including garbage overflowing and having to live with the smell of the hot waste due to the warm summer temperatures.
"I know it's not going to get any better. It's going to get worse," said Kirk Terry, who lives in Portland. "We're going to have to wait and see."
"I like the encouragement to compost and to recycle," said Ruthanne Kendrick Knoll, who also lives in Portland. "The garbage does fill up over the two weeks, so you know, what the solution is, I'm not sure."
The end product of the compost can be sold as fertilizer and is cheaper to compost than dump garbage, but some are unhappy with the inefficiency and the foul smell in the air.
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