Hillsboro, OR Trash & Recycling: Mandatory Organics Recycling (2026)

HMC 6.08.023, adopted by Ordinance 6335 in 2020 and amended by Ordinance 6384 in 2021, applies to covered businesses broadly defined as organizations that cook, assemble, process, serve or sell food, including cafeterias, caterers, correctional facilities, food manufacturers, grocery retail and wholesale, warehouse clubs, and colleges, hospitals, hotels, nursing facilities and retirement communities that run full-service restaurants or on-site food preparation. Those businesses must source-separate and recover food waste controlled by the business or its employees and agents (food waste controlled by customers or the public is not mandated, though businesses are encouraged to capture it). Covered businesses must maintain correctly labeled, easily identifiable receptacles at internal work areas, post accurate signage identifying separated materials, and route the separated food waste through their franchised hauler to a facility Metro has authorized to receive it. A landlord leasing space to a covered business must allow or provide food-waste collection service to that tenant.

Compliance phased in by volume: businesses generating 0.5 ton (1,000 pounds) or more per week had to comply by March 31, 2023; those generating 0.25 ton (500 pounds) or more per week by September 30, 2023; and those generating 0.125 ton (250 pounds) or more per week by September 30, 2024. Food-service providers working inside another business, such as food trucks, are measured by their own generated volume rather than the host business's.

A covered business may seek a 12-month temporary waiver, renewable annually, by showing the Manager in writing that it generates under 250 pounds a week, that its food waste isn't suitable for the program without unreasonable expense, that a physical barrier can't be immediately remedied, that compliance would cause unreasonable capital expense, or that compliance would itself violate another health, safety or government regulation. Waiver recipients must accept periodic verification site visits.