Hi Bonnie,
Up until recently, Portland's commercially-collected food waste (containing some meat scraps and other animal products) went Cedar Grove Compost, up in the greater Seattle area, because there were no programs near Portland that had composting permits that allowed them to take food waste that contain animal materials. Portland's year debris has always gone to local composters (ratehr than Cedar Grove), and these local composters can take vegetative food waste too, but they did not have the DEQ permits to allow them to take spoiled meat, dairy, and other animal products. The situation has changed recently, and we now have a few facilities in Oregon that can compost meat scraps based on new composting rules. Much of our commercial food waste is now going to facilities in Benton and Marion counties, but I think Natures Needs in North Plains might soon be accepting that material. In any case though, at all of these facilities the amount of animal material in any of these commercial composts is very, very small compared to the amount of yard debris and other vegetative inputs. However, if you want compost with no slaughter products, there are a number of Oregon composters who do not accept meat/dairy, including Grimm's and McFarlane's Bark and a bunch of others.
Peter
----- Original Message -----
From: Bonnie Hildebrand
To: Northwest VEG Veganic Gardening Group
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2011 1:03 PM
Subject: [VEG] veg compost possibly found?
Is anyone familiar with Cedar Grove compost?
Their website claims it's "Pacific Northwest recycled brush, branches, leaves, grass clippings, produce trimmings, and small amount of wood waste.".
Though I'd check with ya'll before I send them an email asking if they are compost animal food waste into it, too (I think this is the facility that composts Portland's yard debris).
They don't say it on their website, but the bags are labeled 'organic'.
Bonnie