April 29, 2011
Bottle bill headed for update
Forty years after Oregon passed the nation's first bottle bill, the state legislature is working on a significant overhaul the landmark container deposit return system.
Last week, the Oregon House Committee on Energy, Environment and Water approved by a 7-1 vote a measure that would be the most recent expansion of the Beaver State's bottle bill since 2007 when legislators attached a nickel deposit to bottled water.
Getting the bill to this point required intense negotiations between retailers, recycling advocates, the beverage industry and environmental groups.
"It was a roller coaster ride in the past week," says Scott Klag, legislative chairman of the Association of Oregon Recyclers.
The measure was co-sponsored by State Rep. Vicki Berger, a Salem Republican who is the daughter of Richard Chambers, the author of the original bottle bill. It seeks to expand the materials covered while also relaxing the burden that grocers and other retailers experience while serving as the primary collection points for bottles and cans. The bill would accomplish this by making it easier to establish redemption centers, which would be independent of retailers.
It would also launch a pilot project for one of these redemption centers in an area with a population of less than 300,000 people and would ease requirements that nearby retailers accept beverage containers.
According to sources familiar with the negotiations, including this provision in the legislation was critical in securing the support from the grocers' lobby, which has opposed previous expansions of the bottle bill.
"That's a big part of the politics on this," says one source, who asked not to be indentified and described the redemption centers as a "game changer" for how containers are recycled under the bottle bill.
The legislation would also gradually enlarge the scope of containers covered by the bottle bill, attaching a nickel deposit to all beverages, including beer, soft drinks, water, juice and sports drinks. The expansion would go into effect in 2018 or when redemption centers collect 60 percent of currently-covered items, whichever occurs first.
Under the legislation, if redemption rates for containers covered by the existing bottle bill (beer, soft drinks and water) fall below 80 percent for two years after 2016, the deposit increases from 5 to 10 cents, a provision that also helped get it through the committee, sources say.
"The Bottle Bill is one of the most successful recycling devices ever invented, but it’s showing signs of age. The redemption experience needs to be improved for consumers. More containers should be covered and the deposit should increase if recycling rates drop," says the bill's co-sponsor, State Rep. Ben Cannon, D-Portland, in a prepared statement.
The bottle bill overhaul comes at a time when other state legislatures are considering radically revamping their deposit container laws, with one considering outright repeal.
One source who helped negotiate the bill past its first legislative obstacle expects there to be heavy lobbying by the soft drink industry even though it has strong bipartisan support. Additionally, the source says that it will likely have to be amended in the Oregon Senate, potentially causing it to miss crucial deadlines needed for passage.
HB 3145 was expected to be voted on by the Oregon House Friday, but was instead referred back to the House Rules Committee to clarify the bill's definition of a beverage. As currently written, the bill could potentially apply to containers for condiments, cooking oils and medications.
http://resource-recycling.com/node/1175
