The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting nearly every aspect of life. Millions have lost jobs. Millions more are now working from home. Supply chains are disrupted. Schools, students, and parents rush to adapt to online learning. Universities and colleges shutter and struggle to reopen safely. And in many states and municipalities, residents experienced "stay home, stay safe" orders for much of March, April, and May.
For many Americans, the pandemic means more time at home, a consequence of which has been a spike in residential waste volumes. As reported by media outlets such as The Philadelphia Inquirer, CNBC, and CNN Business, Americans are generating more trash and recyclables, resulting in increases in waste between 5% and 35% percent.
In Portland, Oregon, homeowners select a bin size and how often they want trash picked up as part of a 'pay as you throw' scheme, effectively paying for trash disposal based on how much they throw out. Also unique to Portland, garbage rates are set based on data collected by weighing bins homeowners set out. For fifteen years, the City has turned to Portland State's Community Environmental Services (CES) to collect data on single-family housing units that determine garbage rates. Four times a year, teams of students working for CES head out into neighborhoods across the City at dawn to collect data on how much waste, recycling, and compostables Portlanders produce. The team reports the data to the City's Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, which uses it to set rates.
"Portland has a data-driven approach to setting garbage rates that I don't think you'll find in many other municipalities," said Christa McDermott, director of CES. "We've had a long-standing partnership in which CES provides that data to the city, but like so many other research projects, we had to put our data collection on hold when the pandemic hit."
Like many other colleges and universities across the country, the pandemic brought work to a standstill for several months at Portland State. During that time, PSU developed and implemented protocols for a safe return to research for those working in labs and the field. CES resumed its work with the City in August with a plan to protect its team in place.
According to Project Lead Krista Harrington, a Graduate Research Assistant and M.S. candidate in the geography department at PSU, ensuring her research team could safely collect data for the City required several adjustments. Team members must now travel independently along the routes where they gather data. Personal protective equipment and physical distancing are necessary, as is regularly sanitizing all equipment. The teams, which work in pairs, now alternate between collecting and recording data.
"There is a lot of careful planning and effort put into getting back out in the field," Harrington said. "The safety of our team is priority one, and with a good plan in place, we can achieve that while doing the research that supports our partners at the City."
Are Portlanders producing more waste during the pandemic? Could residential waste collection rates increase? With research back underway at Portland State's Community Environmental Services, we may soon have the answers to these questions.