Power Knot
By September 30, 2024, all Portland businesses that produce over 250 pounds of food scraps per week will be required to compost.
If your business can fill at least two 5-gallon buckets a day with food waste – including plate scrapings, trim from food prep, and spoiled food – then you’re at 250 pounds a week and will be required to compost.
Impacted businesses:
Organizations that cook, assemble, process, serve, or sell food are required to compost their food scraps. This includes:
- Grocery Stores, warehouse clubs, wholesalers, and specialty food stores.
- Restaurants and catering companies.
- Food and beverage manufacturers.
- Businesses with onsite cafeterias, restaurants, and/or food preparation, such as hotels, hospitals, corporate campuses, colleges and universities, nursing care facilities, and correctional facilities.
- Elementary and secondary education with cafeterias or food preparation (enforcement starts in 2024).
Penalties:
The City will lead with education and assistance to help businesses meet the food scraps compost requirement. However, if a business does not work towards compliance and does not get an approved temporary waiver, the City will enforce the requirement and apply fines:
- $200 the first month
- $400 the second month
- $600 for every month after
All food service businesses that are required to compost will be monitored by random spot-check starting in 2025.
Temporary waivers: In certain cases, the City of Portland may give businesses an additional year to come into compliance.
We have the solution:
The LFC® biodigester is a machine that digests waste food. These machines are usually installed in a commercial kitchen and reduces the expense, inconvenience, mess, and carbon footprint of disposing of waste food that would otherwise be hauled to a landfill. Power Knot has eight different sizes that digest from 20 lb (10 kg) per day to 4000 lb (1800 kg) per day of waste food. With many hundreds of installations globally, the LFC biodigester has proven to be reliable, safe, and cost effective.
Food Biodigester
