Selected to research Metro Portland’s current landscape for collection services of bulky waste and proposing a policy approach for the 2030 Regional Waste Plan Action, GBB was tasked with researching policy; preparing an inventory of local bulky waste collection service offerings; performing financial modeling and analysis with comparison of national collection models for regularly occurring bulky waste collection services; and drafting a collection pilot methodology with particular emphasis on multifamily communities and lower-income households.

Full Cost Accounting & Projection

A key element of the project is the development of a cost model to estimate the financial impacts of various options for managing large household bulky items. This model will include a cost estimate of the current status quo system for bulky waste collection and consolidation, including the cost of reporting and collecting illegally dumped household items. In the second phase of the project, the base case will be used to compare and understand the financial tradeoffs of the alternative scenarios under consideration. The alternative scenarios will be built on the assumption that increasing access and consistency of bulky waste services across the region will decrease the rate of mismanaged bulky waste in the environment and will affect other Metro programs and services.

Financial Analysis

Ultimately, the team estimated changes in public and private costs if the collection model under consideration were implemented. These specifically identified changes will then be used to estimate costs to implement pilot services, including equipment, labor, transportation, and disposal costs to collectors; impacts on rate structures; potential customer (rate) costs; potential participation rates; and an estimate of tonnage collected. The GBB Team developed a capital and operations cost projection and confirmed it with Metro. Anticipated costs were outlined as both a bundled rate and an individual line item. Additionally, GBB evaluated potential revenues from improved bulky item collection, if applicable, such as recovered material sales. The goal was to provide a comprehensive activity-based cost database for planning. The rate model followed the EPA guidelines for full cost accounting (FCA) for solid waste management and included material tonnage and user counts for the bulky item collection activity so that rates could be calculated and updated over time.