The majority of Portland's commercial food waste, previously sent to North Plains, will travel an average 164 miles away to four different facilities, ranging from Junction City, Ore. to Royal City, Wash.

, the Nature's Needs compost facility near North Plains will stop receiving mass quantities of commercial food waste April 1.

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"We were looking for quality facilities with good operations that would not bother nearby communities," Recology Vice President Paul Yamamoto said of the new locations, which are largely remote.

Recology will take some of the waste at its Aumsville facility, some at a Junction City facility, and the rest will go to sites in Royal City and Stanwood, Wash. The Royal City site, located 266 miles away from Portland's waste receiving station, may take a little more than half of the 18,000 tons of waste annually, but the amounts at each site could vary by week, Yamamoto said.

Each of the sites are much farther than the 23 miles from the receiving station to Nature's Needs.

For Portland's fledgling food composting effort, the new locations mark at least a temporary setback, dramatically enlarging the program's carbon footprint and highlighting the difficult task of balancing proximity with practicality: Most facilities close to Portland are also residential. A state Senate workgroup that was previously set to help draft legislation mandating a buffer between residential areas and compost facilities now has largely backed off the controversial land-use issue.

But the precedent set by Nature's Needs is clear: Residential areas and odorous compost facilities don't mix well.

"We wish it wasn't the case," Metro Solid Waste Director Paul Ehinger said of the new distance. "Closer to us is better because it's a smaller carbon footprint, and I'm sure that Recology feels the same way because it costs them more to transport it. But for now, this is where we are."

Lower tipping fees that come with larger regional facilities will offset some of the new cost for the company, Recology Oregon Recovery General Manager Dave Dutra said.

Yamomoto, Dutra and Ehinger said they hope this is a temporary solution rather than a long-term one. For Yamamoto, the ideal fix would be to send the waste to a nearby location with an anaerobic digester that can convert the waste into energy.

While commercial food waste, which represents 80-percent of the compost program, is being relocated, Nature's Needs will continue accepting food scraps from Portland's residential curbside program through 2015. Washington County commissioners are hoping the reduction in food waste at the site will quell the tide of odor complaints.

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Note: This story has been updated to reflect that while Recology pays for the odor monitor, the contract and hiring decision is at Washington County's discretion.